


How to Win the Game of Fate

by BtsSugaTrash



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Butterfly Effect, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Ninja, Original Character(s), Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Pre-Canon, Reincarnation, Self-Insert, canon-ish timeline, i made a lot of this shit up
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-05-12
Packaged: 2019-10-31 21:20:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 44,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17857136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BtsSugaTrash/pseuds/BtsSugaTrash
Summary: Dying was just another part of life, the scary part was what came after. So after an accident that was presumably fatal, she was terrified to open her eyes and wake up in a world that was supposed to be fictional. What do you do when you die and suddenly wake up in Naruto as a baby? Try to become the Mary Sue of course!It's another of of those self insert stories, but hopefully not as bad as all the others. Spoiler alert, it probably isn't.





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> So. This is a story I starting writing THREE YEARS AGO! I was 16, and deep into my Naruto phase. I just happened to be moving some of my old files over to my new laptop and discovered this gem sitting, gathering dust. I will warn you, past me never finished this story, but after reading through the 5ish chapters I did finish, I learned that 16 year old me put a lot of effort into this piece. I suppose I just forgot I was writing it one day, as I do with most of my story's. Anyways, I saw how much research I had done to put this work together, and I decided to just beta read it and post it. Yes, it isn't the best writing, and no I probably won't ever finish this piece, but I want to make past me proud! So, here's the story that has sat on my hard drive, untouched for three years! Let's see how past me wrote.

Shit, if I don't pick up the pace, Miranda will seriously kill me. She always turns into a literal demon from hell whenever anyone's late or when someone doesn't meet her strict deadlines.... And it just so happens that today, I'm doing both.  
  
Miranda, my boss, kindly reminded me last night that my end of month report was due today and I better have it on her desk no later then 8:30 a.m. And by kindly, I mean she threaten to rip out my internal organs with her bare hands and then hang me by my small intestine if I dared to be late. Was that against HR policy? Yes. Was I willing to file a formal complaint? No, I like my organs inside my body quite truthfully.  
  
I thought about all the ways that Miranda has threatened to kill me as I ran just a little faster down the sidewalk. As I was sprinting through the morning crowds of New York City, I was also trying to juggle documents, a coffee, laptop case, and a briefcase. I didn't even have time to say sorry to the people I shoved in my scurry to get to work.  
  
I swear, Miranda has the biggest stick up her ass when it comes to deadlines. It's not my fault that I had to finish all thirteen pages of the report the night before it was due. I mean, technically, I had a whole month to do it, but I got distracted. Was it reasonable to call catching up on my Netflix shows a distraction? No, but honestly, it was almost as if I couldn’t help myself. It was almost like I _wanted_ to set myself up for failure on some subconscious level. Huh, maybe I have some kind of masochistic tendencies…

  
Well so what if I'm a procrastinator? It makes me unique. While the report thing may be my fault, the fact that I'm going to be late for work, surprisingly, isn’t. My alarm clock decided to go on strike this morning and never went off. When my lazy ass finally woke up and looked at the clock, I stared at it for a full minute before screaming and throwing myself out of bed. 8:02am, I only had twenty-eight minutes to get the report on Miranda's desk!  
  
I ran around my small studio apartment trying to get ready for the morning. I grabbed some random clothes that probably didn't even match and made my way into the shower. After five minutes, I was dry and dressed, a new fucking record. I skipped over makeup, hair, and breakfast as I almost tripped over my cat. I just grabbed my papers and work related items and threw on a small pot of coffee, putting my shoes on while I waited for it to be done brewing. I looked over at Tobi, my small orange tabby cat, who was sitting by my coffee maker. Yes, I named my cat after a character from an anime, but that was five years ago when I was still 17 and in my Naruto phase, and I couldn’t very well change his name now.  
  
I dumped the coffee in a travel mug, deciding black coffee would be fine, and ran out the door. I forgot to lock the door as I ran towards my 1996 Volkswagen, quickly unlocking the door and jumping in. My things were thrown in the passenger seat as I shoved my keys into the ignition and turned.....

 

“Fuck.” I sat there as my car sputtered to life, only to immediately die. Why did I have to have the shittiest car of all time?  
  
Once again, the car door was thrown open as I gathered my things and jumped out. I slammed the car door shut and took off running down the road. I glanced at my watch quickly before slightly speeding up my pace. 8:17, I had thirteen minutes to get there. Geez, what an unlucky number.  
  
So that's where I am now. With such the hurry this morning, I really hope I didn't forget anything. I mean, I didn't forget anything important like my report, because that would just be stupid…. right? Oh shit, did I seriously forget my report?!  
  
I tried shifting the contents in my arms in an attempt to open my briefcase, managing to get the briefcase to balance on top of the pile in my hands before everything spilled onto the ground in front of me. I threw up my hands in defeat and crouched down with a frustrated growl, starting to gather my things. I saw that my coffee had spilled over most of my papers as I almost started to cry. Why can't this day just be over?

 

Evidently while my thoughts were otherwise occupied, I hadn't notice that I was crouching low in the middle of the road. Nor did I notice the red light turning green. Another important thing I didn't notice were the shouts and screams of terror as I picked up the wet papers. It's New York, it's always loud.

 

Finally, I had gathered up all my papers and found the report I had stayed up all night working on relatively clean. I allowed a relieved smile to settled on my lips as I straighten out the stack of papers. As soon as I stood up and lifted my head, I noticed the people on the crosswalk in front of me looking in my direction, completely terrified. I gave them a confused look and was about to question them when a loud noise interrupted all thoughts.

 

_Hooooooonkkkk!_

 

I looked over to my right in shock when I saw a wall of metal just a few feet away from my face, barreling straight at me. A horror struck look crossed my face before the truck smashed into me at full speed. The crunch and snapping of my bones met my ears and the metallic, meaty stench of blood filled the air as my whole body was suddenly crushed under the weight of sheer, unbearable pain. More shrieks came along with the sound of screeching tires. Everything around me seemed so insignificant at that moment and started to fade away, my pain ebbing away just as quickly as it’s struck, my whole world turned into black and soundless nothingness.

 

Am I… dead? Fuck, now what?

 

Let it be known now that I didn't handle stress too well and somehow, making light of my situation just seemed to make it easier to cope with hardships. Hardships like dying. But underneath that defense mechanism, I was having a full blown panic attack.

 

So now what happens? Afterlife? Will I go to Heaven or Hell? Probably Hell... Well, I never really believed in any of that stuff so I don't really know what will happen to me. Maybe I'll get reincarnated as a cat. That would be nice. Lie around all day, get pet, eat, and sleep. That’s the life I want to live. I would so be-

 

‘Ouch!’

 

A dull throbbing pulsed in the back of my non-existent head and got more painful every second. Why the hell does my head hurt? Or better yet, _how_ does my head hurt? I don't even have a head... or a body for that matter. How can I talk? Or think? What the hell is going on here?

 

My whole body stared to burn and ache until the point where I started to scream. Undeniably, not worse then dying, but a close second. With all the pain mixed with the stress of, you know dying, I couldn't stop the hot tears that started to roll down my face. Wait, my face? I started to hear muffled voices and could almost feel something around me, something warm and comforting.

 

Am I still alive? After _that_ accident?

 

I tried to move and noticed that I could feel my fingers curl slightly so I kept repeating that action, despite the pain it brought. As my senses started coming back, I could hear more clearly, although the world still looked black to me. I was still crying but my screams went down to loud whimpers as I brought my curled fingers up to my eyes. Oh, my eyes are closed! Hah, I knew that…

 

I tried to force my eyes open so I could see my hospital room. After an accident like that, I was no doubt in the ICU. The muffled voices began to become clear and I started to distinguished between the voices. I think there were three people in the room, probably my doctor and my parents. Ugh, I don't feel like talking to them right now.

 

I couldn't quite make out what the voices were saying, but I could hear what they sounded like. One of the voices was a man that was not my father. His voice was calm and soothing and he sounded pretty close to me, most likely the doctor. Another voice that was even closer to me sounded like a woman. I frowned slightly at her voice. She wasn't my mother... maybe a nurse? She sounded exhausted and her voice was quiet. There was one more voice that was a woman, and again, not my mother. Another nurse or doctor? It sounded like she was farther away and she sounded happy and excited about something. What's there to be happy about? I got run over by a giant fucking truck.

 

I reached up and rubbed my eyes again, trying to force myself to open them. Finally, after what seemed like hours of hearing unknown voices and staying in the dark, I managed to crack open my eyes. I looked up through squinted eyelids to see a blurry image of a person standing above me. I stared at them until my vision cleared some and froze completely at who I saw.

 

It wasn't my parents, sisters, brother, friends, or anyone I knew personally, no. I knew them alright, but I never thought I would ever actually see them standing in front of me. Just for a second, imagine what it would be like to suddenly wake up from being in an accident that was supposed to cause your brutal demise to see one of your all time favorite _fictional_ characters standing above you. Yes, you'd be freaked out too.

 

Minato Namikaze stood in front of me with a bright smile plastered over his face. I fumbled around my head for an explanation. Maybe I was hallucinating? That can happen after a head injury, right? Wait, maybe this was heaven and all my favorite characters are here? Or maybe I just finally lost my marbles.

 

I looked down to see myself and just about wet myself at what I saw. I was a… baby. I- what?

 

My brain malfunctioned as I just looked up, trying to see if the ceiling held any answers. It didn't. I noticed red in the corner of my vision and shifted my gaze to see the one and only Kushina Uzumaki smiling down at me.

 

Suddenly, it all came to me. It was exactly like those fanfictions where the character gets a chain mail thing and never forwards it so she gets sucked into whatever anime it is. Except for me, I died and was somehow reborn into the Naruto world as Kushina and Minato's kid. Call it instinct, but for some reason I don't think this is just a hallucination.

 

I’m not sure if it’s possible for a newborn to get a panic attack, but if it was, that was definitely what was happening right now. No, this has to be a hallucination. It’s just not possible. Even if reincarnation _was_ , this is a fucking fictional world. It doesn’t exist. Fuck, there’s no way I’m still sane. And really, who would after quite literally dying and being reborn into a fictional world of violence and death?


	2. Just the Beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Just cause you’re the Uchiha clan heir doesn’t mean everyone will bend to your will and treat you like a prince, asshole.” I had either already died once or was in a coma making me unable to die in this made up world, so it really made life a lot easier knowing if I died here, I’d either finally be where I was supposed to go in the first place or maybe I’d wake up.
> 
> Because speaking like that to Itachi Uchiha meant you had a death wish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter one, since that's all I've proof read so far. Reading ahead, I honestly can't remember where I was going with this, so it's actually kind of interesting! Anyways, I'll try to proof read chapter two after work tomorrow and post it.

Let me be the first one to tell you, going back to being a baby while having the brain of a 22 year old is not as fun as you'd think. The first few weeks were heaven because I didn't have to do anything. I didn't have any responsibilities and I could sleep however much I wanted. If I wanted food, all I had to do was cry and there would be immediate service. I was naturally a lazy person so I always thought being a baby again would be like a dream come true. But I was also the kind of person that had random bursts of energy and had to get up to do something. The only problem was, I couldn't. I was a baby so I couldn't walk, stand, sit, bathe, or even eat on my own. I was stuck in a body that had the muscle mass of a potato. Not only that, but I was someone who liked to do things on their own, so never being able to do _anything_ for yourself was really starting to get to me.

 

After about six months, all my boredom and frustration built up. Although, in those six months, I was able to learn a few things. When I first got here, I had no idea when it was or what was happening. Obviously Minato and Kushina were alive, but did that mean I took Naruto's place? Luckily, I didn't. After a few weeks, Mikoto, Sasuke's mother, came over to visit us and I remember her saying something about Itachi being around my age. Okay, so that means I have a few years until Naruto's born. Mikoto also mentioned that Kushina's 23th birthday is coming up soon. That mean Minato must be about the same age...

 

Another thing I learned was my name. I know, that is a weird thing to say. But with a new life and family comes a new name. To be honest, I think it is the most annoying, idiotic name ever. My new name was Akane Namikaze. Yes, Akane as in brilliant red. My name literally meant red. Oh, I guess I should explain a little. When I was born into the Naruto world, I was born with a darker shade of Kushina's hair, almost giving it a brown undertone and looking blood red. My eyes were... actually kind of pretty. They were an exact replica of Minato's. Unlike Naruto, I wasn't born with whiskers or any physical traits of a fox. Anyway, they named me 'brilliant red' because my hair. Charming, isn't it?

 

Now, I bet you're all wondering about my last name, right? Naruto had the last name Uzumaki, so why do I have the last name Namikaze? Well, the reason Naruto had the last name of his mother was to protect him. Minato had a lot of enemies and some might want to take revenge on his son since Minato wasn't there. Also, If people knew he was the son of the 4th Hokage and he had a demon inside him, everyone would hate him. So in order to protect Naruto from that, Hiruzen, the 3rd Hokage, had him grow up with the name Uzumaki so no one would know he was the son of Minato. Of course, this plan didn't really work because within days, the whole village knew of the demon known as Naruto.

 

So anyway, there was no reason for me to have Kushina's last name. Kushina and Minato could protect me from any enemies that wanted to use me to get to Minato. Simple as that.

 

Another thing I learned was my birthday. March 29th, a few years before Naruto is supposed to be born, anywhere from 3-6 years I’d wager. If I remember correctly, Itachi was, what, 17 or 18 when the story started while Sasuke was 12 right? And since Naruto was only younger then Sasuke by a few months, that gave me… about 5 years? Well, that was better then nothing.

 

Even despite all that, my brain still just couldn’t wrap itself around my situation. After my initial panic, I decided to humor my little hallucination. I figured that I must be in a coma of some sorts after getting hit by a semi like that, and this was just my brain’s way of coping or something. While yes, that was still very worrying, it was much less panic inducing then attempting to grasp the possibility I was actually reincarnated into a fictional world. Which I remind you, is impossible. So for now, I’d play along with the world my brain was creating. Since it was all fake, it wasn’t like I could actually mess anything up anyways.

 

Anyways, I gathered all that information in the six months I have been here. Since Mikoto visited, nothing new has happened. At all. If I didn't find something to do, I was seriously going to explode.

 

So when Kushina came in the next morning, almost nine months since my accident, she carried me into the living room where I sat down next to Minato who was looking over some papers. I reached up with my small sausage fingers and pulled on his sleeve. When I got his attention and he looked down at me, I gave him a smile. This is it, show time!

 

I opened my mouth to say something... only to have my voice coming out in useless baby garble. I frowned as Minato smiled at me, turning his attention back to his work. Fuck, after almost nine months, I still can't even manage to say one word?! It’s my own damn hallucination, why wouldn’t I be able to speak? With new determination, I opened my mouth once again.

 

“ee... otoo.. mm.. os- Dousan!!” I exclaimed when I finally managed to say my first words in this life. Well, almost word. My ’t’s still sounded like ‘d’s, but what do you expect? I’m nine months old! Well, kinda. Minato snapped his head towards me with surprise written over his face. I smiled at him as he stared at me with wide eyes. After a minute, he finally snapped out of it long enough to call out to Kushina.

 

“K-Kushina! Come here, you've got to hear this!” Minato yelled as he picked me up and set me in his lap. I bounced slightly, unable to sit still. Finally, I was making some progress! Even if it was only one word, it was still exciting to know I could finally do something other then mumble incoherently.

 

Kushina came into the room looking worriedly over at me and Minato. Throwing her a gummy smile, she made her way over to us. “What's wrong?” She asked as she glanced down at me, looking for any injuries I may have sustained I assume.

 

“Nothing's wrong! But you've got to hear this. Akane, say it again!” Minato cheered happily as he bounced me slightly. I looked at him before smiling and once again proudly showing off my new skill. “Dousan! Dousan!” I exclaimed over and over again until I heard a squeal of delight.

 

I looked over at Kushina who was now leaning down towards me with a look of pure excitement. She pointed towards herself as she asked, “What about me? What's my name? Can you say Kaasan?” I could almost drown in the anticipation that was pouring out of her and slowly filling the room. I looked blankly at her for a moment, wondering how someone could be so happy about something so trivial. But then I remembered how happy Minato was when I managed to say Tousan for the first time and decided to give her a break. I smiled and pointed towards Kushina as I fumbled over my words, “Baa.. aaa-aa.. Aasan!” ‘K’s were a hard sound, sue me.

 

I heard another shrill squeal before I felt myself being lifted up and into a suffocating hug. Kushina twirled and spun while holding me in her grasp.

 

At first, I was shocked at her actions. To be honest, not even in my real life had my mother ever done anything like this. My parents weren't the best, especially since they were my foster parents who probably only took me in for the money. My mom worked everyday and I only ever saw her at night and by then, she would be exhausted and grouchy. My dad never really liked kids so he was always trying to avoid me. I know, not very good parenting. So when I had moved out at eighteen, it was one of the best days of my life.

 

So now that I had new parents, at least in this weird fucked up world in my head, I wasn't sure what to think. Well, until Kushina just did that. Now, I know that I could get used to this. Kushina and Minato are better parents then my real life parents ever were. Up until now, I have been calling them Minato and Kushina because I felt like I would be diving too deep into this fake reality if I called them Tousan and Kaasan. Even though my real parents sucked, they did raise me, and it would be weird to think of these fictional characters as my parents when I had real ones waiting for me to wake up from my coma. But now I feel like that's okay. I have no idea how long I’m going to be in my made up world, so why shouldn’t I at least pretend like I have loving parents like Minato and Kushina while I’m here? I think it's okay for me to love them back as my real parents, at least until I have to wake up.

 

I hugged Kushina back as I felt someone else come up and hug both me and Kushina. I turned my head and saw Minato had come over to join the hug fest. A smile tugged at my lips as a thought crossed my mind, a thought that will become my first promise in my faux reality. A promise that I will live by and will fulfill.

 

No matter what happens, I want to save Tousan and Kaasan. I won't let them die when Naruto is born, not while I know what will happen. This might just be my brain creating this fake world, but I’d be damned if I didn’t at least try to make sure everyone lived in my own brains story.

 

My power in this fake world can be limitless if I'm careful.

 

==============================---------------------------------========================

 

Although I may have seemed confident with my heroic declaration, I have absolutely no clue how to go through with it. I’ve learned that this isn’t like a lucid dream where I can control anything, but rather it feels as though I’m just another character in the Naruto storyline, having to conform to the reality my brain created. So that makes saving everyone harder.

 

Not only that, but both Kaasan and Tousan died protecting Naruto and the village. If I were to change anything, I could ultimately destroy the village, Naruto, as well as Kaasan and Tousan. But what if... What if Naruto never existed? The whole reason Kyuubi was released was because Kushina had just given birth and the seal was weakened. So in theory, the whole Kyuubi attack won't happen if Naruto was never born. Since it is a few years until Naruto will be born, I can stop it from happening now. I could start by-

 

No, wait, what the hell? How could I think such a thing? Naruto is the main character and a part of Kaasan and Tousan's happiness. How could I ever take that away? If Naruto didn't exist, the whole story would go to shit. Oh fuck, I'm an awful daughter...

 

Freezing, I brought all my thoughts to halt. Fuck, I have to remember that this is all fake. It’s not real… But why was it getting harder and harder to believe that? I’ve spent so much time here, the line of reality felt like it was starting to fade away.

 

“Akane? Is something wrong Sweetie?” Kaasan asked as she finished putting away the clean dishes into their correct cupboards. I looked up at her and realised how weird it must seem for a one year old to look as if she were having an existential crisis. Well technically, I kind of was, but it would still be weird. I gave her a reassuring smile as I stood up on wobbling legs and ran over to her, latching myself onto her leg. I looked up at her and gave her a toothless grin.

 

“I'mmmkay, Kaasan!”

 

Okay, so maybe I still couldn't quite form words like I wished, but I at least got my point across. I guess if this was all fake, I didn’t really need to think so hard about their fast approaching demise. Kaasan reached down to pat my head as she picked me up, sitting me down in the living room.

 

Ugh, this place again. I had formed somewhat of a hatred for the living room since I had been stuck here. Kaasan and Tousan didn't let me out of the house much for whatever reason, so I always spent all my time inside. I guess I understand their protectiveness since I was only 19 months old, but they should be a little more lenient. Anyways, I digress. The reason I hate this room is because every time I'm brought here, which is a lot, I get ignored in favour of paperwork. Who the hell has that much paperwork?!

 

I grumpily crossed my arms and looked over to where Kaasan was writing down something I couldn't read. What? I'm only one and it's all written in Japanese, a language I was still trying to understand, let alone learn to read it. I’m not sure how my brain did it, but somehow everyone here speaks and writes in Japanese, so I have to completely learn the language. Thankfully, I seemed to have some kind of childlike affinity of picking up the language, so I am able to at least piece together most of what people are saying. Perhaps I subconsciously learned Japanese from watching so many anime’s or something? Or maybe… no. No, it’s not real. That’s impossible.

 

I slowly made my way to go stand by Kaasan as I put on one of my best puppy faces. “Kaasan.... 'mm bored...” After she turned her attention towards me, no doubt to tell me to go play, I saw her resolve break at my face.

 

In my head, I smirked at my evilness. Oh Akane, you devil. I gave myself a mental pat on the back at my flawless performance as I sold it by looking down at my feet, held my hands behind my back, and softly kicked the ground. After a few seconds of doing this, I glanced back up at her and slightly tilted my head.

 

“Can we do somein' Kaasan? Pweeease?” I said in a tone that dripped with cuteness. It took a mere second before Kaasan sighed and put her work to the side. I didn't let up the act until I was certain she was going to put my boredom to rest. She got up from her seat and crouched in front of me with a warm smile. “Sure sweetie. What would you like to do?” She asked as I let my act fall, giving her a big smile and a hug as well.

 

“I wanna learn tah be a ninya!” I exclaimed as I drew back from our hug, looking at her surprised face. I had never mentioned to them before anything about being a ninja and they never asked me about it in return. All Kaasan or Tousan had ever said about it was that they were both ninjas. As far as Kaasan knew, I didn't even know what a ninja was or what they do.

 

My smile never broke as the contemplative look crossed her face. She thought about it for a few minutes before looking into my eyes with an unreadable look. My smile disappeared and was replace with confusion. What did that look mean?

 

“Akane, are you sure you want to be a ninja? It may seem like ninjas are invincible hero's, but it is extremely dangerous. Just because Tousan and I are ninjas doesn't mean you need to feel like you have to be one as well. You're free to choose your own path.” Kaasan said as she fixed me with the same unreadable look.

 

That… really made me rethink everything. Do I really want to? If I do, there is no telling if I'll even live long enough to fix anything or save anyone. There is a great chance I'll die before Kaasan and Tousan would during that battle if I tried to help. Also, should I even save anyone? If I interfere with the main story line, there's no telling what kind of impact I could make. By saving one person, or by changing one persons future, I could potentially cause another Shinobi war or worse. It was all a butterfly effect. But on the other hand, I won't be able to sit idly by while people die or succumb to evil. That's not me. So basically, I have two options.

 

Option number 1: I could turn down being a ninja in favor of a safe life of a civilian. That way, the main story line will continue like it should and I won't accidentally kill anyone important like Naruto. But at the same time, I would know exactly who is going to die and when. What's worse, I wouldn't be able to do a damn thing about it because I wouldn't be a ninja. I would have to live with knowing people are dying and I could have saved them. That includes Tousan and Kaasan.

 

Option number 2: I could accept being a ninja and live a dangerously heroic life. I could, with a certain amount of training, get enough power to protect people. I might be able to save people like Kaasan, Tousan, Obito, Neji, Asuma, Itachi, Sasuke, Jiraiya, and everyone else who either strayed to evil or suffered an untimely demise. At the same time, there's no guarantee I'll even live past genin, or to a genin for that matter. Not only that, I might be an awful ninja and won't even be good enough to save anyone. Also, I could disrupt the flow of the story and cause something that would be beyond my control. For instance, If I were to save Itachi from massacring his clan, the Uchiha clan might try to take over Konoha. In turn, it could mean a civil war and be the downfall as Konoha as we know it.

 

All these thought flew by me as I weighed my options. Once again, I forced myself to stop. This. Was. All. _Fake._ Why was I seriously contemplating all this, living and dying, when I couldn’t really die? I was in a coma in a hospital bed after getting hit by a truck on my way to work. This was all just a made up illusion created by my damaged brain. Swallowing my uncertainty, I put a smile on my face and nodded to Kaasan, portraying the naive little girl as I exclaimed, “I'm shuuure! I wannabe a cool ninya like Tousan and Kaasan!”

 

I saw the defeated look cross Kaasan's face at my apparent lack of understanding of what she was asking. She sighed as she stood and looked down at me, shaking her head. What did she expect? I'm only one...Well to her I am. Little did she know I understood more than she ever could, I knew the depths and consequences of any action, I knew how god damn real this fake world felt and how I felt as if I had to make the right decision.

 

“Alright Sweetie. But for now, you're just learning basic things like hand signs, alright?” Kaasan explained with a stern look on her face that slipped as soon as she saw my excitement.

 

“Alwight! 'mma be a ninya! Yesh!” I screamed. Might as well play my part, right?

 

=-=-=-==========================----------------------------------=================

 

The next year flew by compared to the previous. Since I had training to do, unlike last year, I wasn't bored out of my mind. I learned many things in a short amount of time like hand seals, differences in weapons, types of poisons, and basically everything that requires little to no combat or chakra. Kaasan even stated training me on seals and other Uzumaki knowledge that would have been lost without her survival. While I enjoyed everything Kaasan and Tousan taught me, I knew that I needed to learn more and fast. If I wanted even a slight chance at protecting them, I needed to learn some good offensive jutsu that can cause some major damage. Then again, I'm only two, so what are the chances of anyone teaching me something dangerous?

 

Not only was I learning about all these different aspects of being a ninja, I was also losing any remaining sanity. Why? Because I was beginning to seriously doubt that this was an illusion. I know it sounds insane, but I’ve been here for over two years already. There’s no way my brain would know this extensive amount of Japanese, these assets of being a ninja that weren’t ever addressed in Naruto, the plot lines that were never covered in any of the mangas or anime episodes. Sure, my brain could have just been making shit up, but this elaborate? No way. It wasn’t possible to be reborn into a fictional world… and yet here I was. Honestly, every time I thought about it extensively, I had a full blown panic attack, so I began to stop trying to work it all out. For now, I’m just going on the assumption that it’s at least real to me, so I’m acting as if I could really live or die. It’s the only way I can continue on without going insane at this point. Or maybe I already am?

 

Shaking myself from my rogue thoughts before I succumbed to the panic I could feel rising, I brought myself back to the issue at hand. Maybe, just maybe, I could teach myself some jutsu. I think I might be able to remember some of the common jutsu's and what the hand seals were. I made my way to the living room and listened for a moment. Hearing Kaasan's humming, I knew she was distracted with chores. Perfect, now's my chance.

 

I concentrated on remembering the hand seals for one of the more simple jutsu's. Hmm... I think that's right... Well, I guess I should try it. Slowly, I formed the hand seals for serpent, ram, monkey, boar, horse, and finally tiger. I felt an unfamiliar power build up within myself as I finished the seals, getting excited at the promise of my first ninjutsu.

 

I felt the power, most likely chakra, build up as I said, “Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!” My arms fell to my sides as I leaned forward, opening my mouth to expel the flames that I felt dancing in my throat. I waited to see the roaring flames that were about to come.... and I waited a bit longer.

 

Wait, here it comes! I could feel the heat rise in my throat and come out my mouth.... as only a puff of smoke exited before my built up chakra dissipated. I blinked for a moment before my right eye began twitching in annoyance. “What the hell was that?” I mumbled to myself as I pondered over what I did wrong.

 

Maybe that was a bit complicated... I should try a simpler jutsu. I nodded to myself as I went through my memory banks for an ever simpler jutsu. I mean, compared to Rasengan or Chidori, the great fireball release should be simple but.... whatever. I'll just try something even a toddler like me can do!

 

I adjusted my hands into the seal of confrontation as I once again felt my chakra build up. I held it a little longer so the jutsu would be super strong. When I had held it for a few minutes, I yelled. “Hiding in Mist Technique!”

 

Once again, I dropped my arms to my side and leaned forward to expel the mist from my mouth. Only for it to once again fail. A puff of white mist came out before my built up chakra dissipated. I verbally growled in frustration as I racked my brain for yet another simple jutsu. Hiding in Water Technique? Fireball jutsu? Nothing?

 

I screamed out and clenched my hands in my hair after over ten failed attempts at any kind of jutsu's I could remember, retrying the same ones over and over. My brain was thinking a mile a minute, desperately trying to figure out what was wrong. Maybe I didn't have enough chakra? I mean, I was only two years old... no, that's not it. I should be able handle something simple, even with my lack of chakra. So what is it?

 

Oh my gosh. I'm not like Rock Lee where I can't do ninjutsu to save my life, right? No, no, no, no, no! How am I supposed to save them when I can't even fight?! Okay, stop. Deep breaths. In, out, in, out... Okay, I don't even know if that is the problem. I'll just ask Kaasan... and then somehow explain how I knew all the jutsu's? No way. Hm. How can I ask without being suspicious?

 

Suddenly, a knock on the door jarred me from my inner waging war. Curiosity getting the best of me, I walked over to the door and poked my head out just as Kushina was opening the door. Honestly, I wasn’t even surprised at Mikoto’s smiling face as she was ushered in. I was just about to escape to the living room when a bundle of black behind the Uchiha woman caught my eye. What-?

 

My eyes widened when my realization hit. There, standing in all his two and a half feet of glory, stood the infamous Itachi Uchiha. Itachi. Fucking. Uchiha. Unable to form an intelligent thought, I just stood there stiff as Kaasan brought Mikoto and a trailing Itachi into the kitchen, none of them sparing me a glance from where I was only half visible in the doorway. 

 

As soon as the two clan members were out of sight, my brain went into panicked overdrive. Itachi bloody Uchiha was in my house. The clan murdering, good intentioned, future Mangekyo wielding Uchiha was… a toddler. Panic subsiding, I suddenly felt royally stupid. Itachi may have been a murder(in the future even), but that made him no different then any other ninja, something I’d be one day actually. He killed his clan for the sake of the village, not because he was some psychotic murdering bastard. Well, perhaps he was a bit unstable, but not now. Right now he was just Itachi Uchiha, young prodigy with a lot riding on his shoulders as clan heir.

 

Dismissing any remaining nerves, not quite sure what I was doing, I made my way into the kitchen, seeing an almost comical sight. Kushina and Mikoto were animately discussing (gossiping) over their cups of steaming tea, but that wasn’t the funny part. Sitting on the far side of the square table, women on both his sides, Itachi sat uncomfortably quiet with his tea, face barely poking out over the table top.

 

Swallowing the laugh that threatened to escape, I oh so subtly cleared my throat, drawing three pairs of eyes my way. Even without the Sharingan activated, it was a bit disconcerting to have two sets of Uchiha eyes on you at once, especially knowing what they could do. Smiling nervously, I looked up at Kaasan as she took the hint.

 

“Oh! I forgot that you two haven’t met yet. Akane, this is Itachi-kun, he’s Mikoto and Fugaku’s son. Itachi-kun, this is Akane, my daughter.”

 

Bowing slightly as I thought I recalled that was appropriate in this new culture I was thrown in, I spoke as I brought my head back up to meet Itachi’s piercing gaze. “Nice to meet you Itachi-san.”

 

I know that you’re suppose to address people differently depending on if they’re older or younger, and if they hold a position of power or not, but I have no idea who’s older or if I’m suppose to call him something different since he’s the Uchiha heir. Look, I only started learning manners like a year ago, and I still don’t entirely understand the language or culture. I’m doing my best.

 

Seeing him nod, a few beats of silence past before I realized he wasn’t going to respond. What a fucking brat. I held in the sneer that threatened to make its way to my face as I heard Kaasan chuckling awkwardly. I held eye contact while I heard Mikoto chide Itachi. “Itachi, manners.”

 

Nodding again, I refused to look away as he finally responded. “You too.”

 

I’m going to strangle him _._

 

I heard Mikoto sigh. “Itachi, why don’t you and Akane-san go outside and play? Kushina and I have some catching up to do.”

 

And that’s when I just couldn’t help but to glare slightly up at Mikoto. I saw Kaasan look a bit disapprovingly at me, but it went unnoticed by Mikoto as it appeared Itachi held the same thought I did. Itachi glared up at his mother, causing her to lightly chide him again and send him out to the backyard with myself in tow. Now, we both stood on the back porch outside the paper sliding door silently, looking out at the small clearing surrounded by trees.

 

Never one for silence despite my unwillingness to strike up a conversation with the brat, I spoke up without drawing my eyes away from the tree line. “So, know any cool jutsu’s?”

 

The silence that stretched was a tense one. Frowning as I realized yet again he wouldn’t be answering me, I turned towards the boy who was staring decidedly towards Kaasan’s small garden.

 

“Listen, I’m just trying to be nice you little brat. What the hell crawled up your ass this morning anyways?” Apparently that was the wrong thing to say, judging by the pair of glaring eyes that were now focused solely on me. Wow, that’s quite unnerving. But it seemed as if I was done caring. I glared right back and finished my thought.

 

“Just cause you’re the Uchiha clan heir doesn’t mean everyone will bend to your will and treat you like a prince, asshole.” I had either already died once or was in a coma making me unable to die in this made up world, so it really made life a lot easier knowing if I died here, I’d either finally be where I was supposed to go in the first place or maybe I’d wake up.

 

Because speaking like that to Itachi Uchiha meant you had a death wish.

 

I held the famous Uchiha glare as the words came out of my mouth, a shocked look taking place of the glare on Itachi’s face. A few beats past where I could only hear my own frantic heart beating in my chest, a nervousness I pushed down that was trying desperately to make itself known. And then that shocked looked settled into a stoicism that would make even the Copy-nin hard pressed to mimic.

 

“Asshole?”

 

As my words caught up to me, a pink dusting suddenly lit up my face. Did I seriously call Itachi Uchiha an asshole to his face? Yes, yes I did. Fuck.

 

Swallowing any fear, I decided that I would grab the bull by the horns, too late to retract my words. “I’m not exactly wrong am I?”

 

Those dark eyes bore holes back into mine, looking as if he was reading my most inner thoughts as an almost non-existent smirk settled over his lips. “Well, if I’m an asshole, I think that makes you a bitch.”

 

Eyes going wide, I started back in shock for only a second before I barked out in laughter, throwing my head back slightly before meeting the bemused gaze of Itachi yet again. “Touché Itachi, touché.” Hearing the high and mighty Itachi call me a bitch to my face while holding that insufferable smirk was probably the funniest thing I could think of. I wasn’t one who was easily offended, and I actually preferred poking fun and having someone poke back. Everyone in this world had coddled me so far, as I’m sure much was the same with Itachi, so it felt _good_ to insult someone and have them insult you right back without much care for your feelings.

 

Is that a weird thing to find such enjoyment in? Probably. But I couldn’t really find it in me to care much.

 

Chuckling again, I went and sat down on the edge of the porch, legs dangling off the edge, my feet not quite able to reach the grass below. I looked out over the yard as I heard shuffling behind me, seeing Itachi sit a few feet away from me, pulling his feet under him so he sat cross-legged. I huffed slightly as I looked over at him. “Do you always have to act so…” I let my sentence trail off, not quite knowing the word for ‘posh’ in Japanese. Instead, I just waved an absent hand at him and said, “Uchiha-y?”

 

He slightly raised an eyebrow in my direction, the only indication he gave that he heard me, as he seemed to mull over my question. “What do you mean always? You’ve only just met me.” Unwilling to take the bait I just rolled my eyes.

 

“Please. I could tell from the moment I saw you that you were always like that. All proper and better-than-thou. Don’t you ever get down and get dirty? You know, spar with someone and go home with a couple bruises?” I looked over at Itachi as he almost looked put out at my words.

 

“Of course I train.”

 

I narrowed my eyes at him. Finally. “Then prove it.”

 

I jumped down from my seat and landed in the grass below, turning around to face Itachi as I walked backwards into the clearing. “C’mon, let’s spar!”

 

“What?”

 

Was this a bad idea? Most definitely. But I had to learn to fight and fast, and it was obvious that Kaasan wasn’t going to and Tousan was too busy with the on going war so he was never home. My only option was to teach myself, but I didn’t know the first thing about fighting or jutsu’s, or chakra. Not really. I remember some of what was explained in the anime and manga, but that wouldn’t get me anywhere putting it into practice. Therefore, I would learn from my failures. Those failures being loosing quite embarrassingly against Itachi.

 

Stopping at the middle of the yard, I gave Itachi a sly smile. “Us. Fight.”

 

Itachi stayed where he was sitting, shaking his head slightly. “Why would I do that?”

 

“Cause I’m asking nicely?”

 

“You are?”

 

“I can…”

 

Sighing, Itachi stood and gracefully jumped off the porch, landing in a fluid crouch before straightening and coming forward. Show off. I stood there as Itachi came to stand a few feet in front of me, looking me up and down before meeting my gaze. “Have you ever sparred before?”

 

At first, I contemplated lying in case he backed out, but in the end, I figured he’d be able to tell right away anyways as I shook my head. “Nope. But better late than never!” I crouched down into a fighting position as I kept my gaze locked on the calm Uchiha who now looked as if he was holding back a laugh as he looked at me with a superior smirk.

 

“Is that what you call a fighting stance?”

 

Frowning down at myself, I stood back up straight and met Itachi’s gaze again. “What’s wrong with it?”

 

As if it took all his might not to roll his eyes, Itachi sighed and made his way forward, pausing right in front of me before bringing up his hand to push down on my shoulder. “Crouch down a little- too much, just enough to have your body tense for an attack but ready to leap and move if need be.” Pulling back his hands as I followed his instructions, his eyes roamed down. “Bend your knees bit more. Perfect. You want to stand less on the ball of your feet so you’re ready to make quick movements, but still steady.” Then he moved to adjust my arms from where they hung at my sides. “Arms always up and ready to block and attack. While your legs do most of the positioning, your arms are the ones that protect your most vital organs and attack more then your legs will.” Taking a step back, Itachi gave me a once over and nodded.

 

“Good. Now stand up straight again.” Confused, I did as asked and looked over at Itachi as he immediately followed up with, “Now go back into that position I showed you.”

 

I gave him a withering gaze as I crossed my arms. “You’re just messing with me now, right?”

 

Shaking his head, Itachi looked back at me blankly. “That position needs to become a habit, something as second nature as breathing. If you want to be able to focus on a fight, you can’t be thinking about how you’re standing the entire time. You have to get your body used to being in that position so that when you’re in a real fight, you’ll have it so ingrained in your brain that you don’t have to think about getting in position, you just do.”

 

Staring back, mouth agape, I noticed my stare and snapped my jaw shut and nodded before getting back in position. It was quite incredible honestly for such a young child to know so much. I ha a good 20 years on the kid and still I didn’t know any of that. Apparently appeased with my compliance, Itachi looked over my position. “Widen your stance a bit and draw back your shoulder. That will give you better balance and mobility. Good. Now do it again.”

 

And so I did. Although I threw in a few insults here and there, I kept most of them to myself. I wasn’t sure how far I could push him before he actually got angry, and I couldn’t risk passing up on this opportunity. Twenty minutes later found me dropping into position again when Itachi finally stopped me. “That’s fine. As long as you keep doing that everyday, you’ll have it down in no time. Now, let’s see if you can throw a punch.”

 

Nodding excitedly, I bounced over to where Itachi stood, facing him and immediately dropping into position. At that, Itachi actually let out a quiet chuckle, shocking me a bit.

 

“I didn’t know robots were capable of laughing.”

 

After a confused cock of the head and a murmured, “Robot?”, Itachi waved off my jibe as he held up a hand. “We aren’t sparing yet. You aren’t even close to being ready. I’d have you beaten in less then three seconds.”

 

Straightening, I resisted the urge to pout. “I bet I could at least last five…” I murmured to myself as Itachi crouched down slightly and held up his hand again.

 

“I want you to punch my hand as hard as you can.”

 

I started at him blankly. “Huh?”

 

He stared right back, silence settling over us again. Sighing, I crouched back into my fighting stance and just went along with it. Well whatever, he was asking for it at least. Pulling my fist back, I sent a punch right into his open palm, throwing my body into to deliver the hardest punch I could, waiting for my knuckles to make contact. I was surprised when I met nothing but air, my momentum throwing me forward as I fell forward and almost lost my balance. I stumbled and was just finding my balance as I felt a hand push down on my upper back, another hand grabbing my wrist as my arm was twisted behind my back. Grunting as I was pushed and held onto the ground, my non restrained hand trapped under my pinned body, I felt Itachi’s weight holding me down as my anger spiked.

 

“What the fuck?!”

 

I could almost feel the amusement radiating from the Uchiha as he leaned down and spoke right behind my ear. “Lesson number two, never make an attack you can’t recover from. Plan multiple steps ahead with every move.”

 

I opened my mouth to cuss him out when a voice from inside the house made us both freeze.

 

“Itachi! Come on, it’s time to go.”

 

I looked up at Itachi out of the corner of my eye, just barely able to see him looking back down at me as my face was held against the grass with his knee. After a few seconds past, Itachi slowly untangled from his hold on me and stood as I got up after him and winced as my sore muscled were stretched. I rolled my neck as I gave the Uchiha a glare.

 

“I’m gonna get you back for that one day.”

 

I stood in shocked silence as Itachi allowed a genuine smile settle on his face, a real laugh escaping his lips before he smirked back at me with his usual superior look. “Good luck with that.”

 

And with that, he turned and walked right back in the house, leaving me standing in the middle of the back yard, bruised and sore as I watched Itachi disappear through the paper sliding door. I stood there in silence for almost an entire minute before my thoughts returned to me.

 

“What… just happened?”

 

=============-------------------------------======================-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=======

 

After my impromptu training with Itachi, I practiced my stance again and again until it was just as Itachi said, my body knew the stance enough to assume that position every time I went outside to train. As I rounded four, I found myself steadily getting better at fighting, my morning runs and workouts finally building up a bit of lean muscle on my immature body. Itachi would come over with Mikoto about once a month or less, every time teaching me something new that he’d make me work on for the next time we met. It was… weird. I wasn’t sure if we were friends or enemies or what. We insulted each other, he’d teach me something before ending up hurting me in one way or another, and then he’d leave with my promise to get him back. We never really talked or anything. It was just strange.

 

As I worked on my physical fighting with Itachi, I tried working on my ninjutsu on my own, coming up flat. While I was able to now somewhat attempt very, _very_ low level jutsu’s, it was never quite right. For some reason, I just couldn’t get ninjutsu’s to work right. And then the one time I attempted a genjutsu, quite literally nothing happened.

 

On the upside, I was awesome at chakra control, just like Sakura. I could walk on walls, the ceiling, and, to some extent, water. As long as I could work on my chakra control more, I just might be proficient at Taijutsu. Eventually, once Tousan was home for a few days, I asked him to teach me a ninjutsu. Of course, I had to beg him, but he eventually caved and decided he’d only teach me one. Going the easy route, I managed to convince him I wanted more then an E-rank jutsu and so he settled on the D-rank, Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique. I know, it’s a mouth full, but it’s useful. Only, after a full week, I still couldn’t manage. In an effort to teach me a just I could use, he switched to another D-rank and tried the Hiding in Mist technique. While I was able to produce mist, it was no more then just a puff. After attempting for almost two weeks Tousan decided to sit me down. He said that it would be better if I rethought my plan of becoming a ninja.

 

What surprised me most about that was how much it hurt. Being told to give up, especially by the person who has raised me, made my heart clench. To be honest, in that moment, I wanted to cry. So I did. I couldn't stop the tears that started to roll down my face, but I did manage to stop the broken cries and gasps that would normally come with it. I saw Tousan's face go slack with shock, and maybe even guilt as I met his gaze with my own blurred one. My face set in determination, I took in a shaky breath.

 

“No, I won't.” I refused to look up into Tousan’s shocked face as I kept my gaze locked on my folded hands in my lap. “It doesn't matter to me that I can't do ninjutsu or genjutsu. It doesn't matter that I don't have a bloodline trait like others, It doesn't matter that all of this doesn't come naturally like a some child prodigy. I'll just train harder then everyone else, teach myself genjutsu and ninjutsu until I master them. I'm not a natural born ninja, so I'll become one through my own hard work. I want to have the strength to save the people I care about, so I won't give up. I-” And that's where my voice broke, sobs wracking my small body.

 

Apparently, Tousan felt really bad after that because he wouldn't let me out of his hug, continuously letting out a string of apologies. I eventually had no choice but to forgive him, but I suppose he still felt guilty because he finally let me out of the house and took me out for Ichiraku ramen. So really, it all turned out great. And I finally understand why Naruto loves that place so much.

 

Right now, five months have past since I turned four years old and I haven't heard anything about fetus Naruto. Wait, ew. That sounds kinda gross. Anyway, Tousan is still in the middle of fighting the war, so he is still hardly here. The only time he's here is in-between missions, and thats usually for a week at most. Most of the time, it's just me and Kaasan. Don't get me wrong, she's awesome, but at the same time I can't help but want to see Tousan more.

 

One highlight is that when Kaasan has to leave the house for groceries, she has no choice but to bring me with her. Let me tell you, that place is amazing! It's so full of life and energy. I can't help but smile every time I step out of the house. It feel like the true embodiment of Konoha every time we step out onto the main streets, and it’s one of the best feelings in the world.

 

Mikoto has visited a few times, but she hasn’t brought Itachi with her in a few months. I’m not sure why, but I almost kind of miss him and his arrogant little face. At least he was always straight and didn’t treat me like a child. Anyways, Mikoto always talks with me and asks me a whole bunch of questions. To be honest, it's pretty annoying. But she also brings me onigiri, so it's alright since it is my favorite food. Other then Mikoto, Itachi, Tousan, and Kaasan, I haven't seen any other characters that I recognize. And really, I can't tell if that's a good or a bad thing. 

 

A knock interrupted my thoughts as Kaasan called out, “Coming!”, and scurried over to get the door. It's probably Mikoto again, Ugh. I wonder if I can mange to subtly slip into my room and-

 

“Oh my gosh! You're here!” Kaasan shrilled in delight as I turned my head in the direction of the door. My eyes just about fell out of their sockets at the sight I saw. In all his pervy glory stood Jiraiya, the one and only Toad Sage. Well that was someone I totally forgot about... How did I mange to forget one of the best characters who happens to be both Tousan and, in the future, Naruto's sensei?

 

I watched as Kaasan and Jiraiya hugged, neither noticing my small presence as they exchanged formalities at the door. “How are you? I haven't seen you since you left on that mission years ago!” Kaasan exclaimed as she dragged him into the house.

 

“Hehe, I stayed a little longer so I could do some research.” Jiraiya explained as he walked into the house. He turned the corner towards the living room and froze when he finally noticed me. Internally, I smirked at the glorious opportunity standing right in front of me. I kept my face devoid of all emotion as I stared at him dead in the eyes. He seemed pretty unnerved at my presence until Kaasan came in and saw the two of us.

 

“Ah! Akane, this is Jiraiya-san, the Toad Sage. He’s one of the three Sanin and was Tousan's sensei. Jiraiya, this is my daughter, Akane. She's about four and a half now.” She looked at us expectantly as I stayed in my role as creepy daughter. I stared at him blankly for a few more seconds before I gave a full ninety degree bow, never breaking eyes contact with him. “It's a pleasure to meet your acquaintance.” I said in a deadly calm voice, mimicking the Uchiha style of presentation. I could feel the creeped-outness rolling off him as I slowly straightened back into a standing position.

 

He stepped back slightly before stuttering out, “Uhh.. Y-Yeah! Same kid, same....” He looked at me warily before I couldn't contain it anymore. I burst out laughing, nearly falling over as I clutched my stomach. Tears welled up in my eyes as I banged my fist against the wall beside me.

 

When I managed to get a hold of myself, I looked back to see a look on Jiraiya's face that said 'what the hell is wrong with her?'. I let out a few more chuckles before saying, “Oh man, you should have seen your face, that was priceless!” I almost was thrown into another fit of laughter at the disbelief on his face, but I contained myself.

 

I could hear Kaasan trying to hold in giggles of her own before Jiraiya shook his head and put a small smile on his face. “You really had me going their kid. I was about to run out of here screaming like a little girl. Are you sure you’re only four?” He chuckled and made his way over to the couch and Kaasan and I followed except I sat on the floor in front of them. I took his question as rhetorical and let the question breeze by as conversation sparked.

 

After the whole possessed child bit, I felt a lot better. That was the first time I had laughed so hard in awhile, I really needed that. During the following conversation, I stayed silent as I let Kaasan and Jiraiya talk about everything that had happened. Eventually, I found myself bored with the idle chit-chat and let my eyes wander aimlessly around the room. As my eyes swept over all the familiar objects, I noticed an orange blur that was out of place. I adjusted my sight on the spot of orange that was on the table and made my way towards it. Once I reached it, I couldn't help the malicious, Cheshire cat grin that took over my face.

 

“Really? I had no idea that Minato was capable of something like that. Do you think he wa-”

 

“Hey Kaasan? What is this?” I interrupted with my innocent sounding question, earning two sets of eyes to swivel in my direction. Both pairs of eyes widened and their jaws dropped at what I was holding in my hands. I was holding up the first volume of Icha Icha Paradise so it was open to a page that was quite... graphic.

 

While they were still in shock, I took the time to make the situation even worse for them. “Is this what Jiraiya-san was researching?” I gave an innocent look as both adults sprung from their seats and grabbed for the book. Kaasan managed to get the book first and gave a nervous chuckle with a beat red face.

 

“Uhhh yeah! He was researching that so he could write a book.” Kaasan said as she stumbled over her words, but I still wasn't going to let up.

 

“He wrote that book? Oh, can I read it? Well I mean, I can't actually read but there's a lot of pictures! Can I please?” I begged, making Kaasan look at Jiraiya for help. Jiraiya looked just as clueless as Kaasan and he tried his best to find an excuse.

 

“Uhh.. no, you can't. Because..... this is a book that only adults can read!” He exclaimed with a nervous laugh. Psh, he thought this was over? Just you wait for my grand finale.

 

“So... You wrote naughty things in there?” I asked in a mock whisper as my face grew into a look that made me seem shocked that he would do such a thing. When all I got as a response was indecipherable stuttering, I decided it was time to finish my act.

 

“You're a Pervy Sage.” I said blankly as I shocked both Kaasan and Jiraiya into silence.

 

“I'm a what?!” Jiraiya yelled as I crossed my arms and gave him an innocent look. “You heard me. You wrote naughty thing, so that makes you a Pervy Sage.” He narrowed his eyes and gave a low, irritated grumble. He looked over at Kaasan and asked, “Are you sure that she's only four?”

 

I laughed evilly in my head at the irony of his question. If only you knew Pervy Sage, if only you knew...

 

Not a minute later, I heard the door open from the other room, causing all three pairs of eyes to land on the blonde who came in the room, drawing shocked gasps all around. Tousan strode in, familiar robes and hat in tow. I felt my mouth fall open in shock as I looked upon… well, as I looked upon the new Hokage. Snapping out of it, I couldn't stop myself from running to the door and leaping at him. “TOUSAN!” I yelled as I ran into him full force. Luckily, he managed to catch me in a hug before we both fell to the ground. He chuckled and hugged me tighter before setting me back on the ground. I looked up at him in awe. “Tousan, what are you wearing?”

 

Smiling widely down at me, he twirled as his flowing robes billowed, drawing chuckles from me before stopping. “My new robes. Your Tousan just became the new Hokage!”

 

“What?!” Tousan looked up, only now seeming to notice the extra presence in the room. “Jiraiya-sensei!”

 

I watched as they all gushed, smiling at their excitable chatter. It was moments like these that made it so hard to believe this world was so full of death and blood and gore. It made it hard to think that a giant fox demon would terrorise Konoha in maybe a year.

 

As I began to get lost in thought as I so often did, I almost missed Kaasan’s question. “How come you're home so early? Wouldn't you normally be on a mission because of the war?”

 

In case you haven't realised, I was born towards the end of the 3rd Shinobi War. Of course, Tousan was a freaking bad ass during the war and greatly contributed to Konoha's power. While I know that this would lead to him becoming the infamous Yellow Flash, I still felt lonely. He was gone all day and sometimes for weeks at a time. I guess with power comes a price...

 

Tousan smiled at Kaasan. “Actually, the war is coming to its end. I think I'll be home a lot more now. Well, at least in Konoha a lot more now. I’ll have my duties as the Hokage keeping me busy most of the time.” Tousan explained. Kaasan let out a small surprised gasp, Jiraiya just looking on in shock.

 

“I-It's over? Who won?” Kushina asked, almost sounding scared about what the answer might be. Tousan smiled wider as Kaasan visibly relaxed, letting her shoulders slump down. Tousan walked closer to Kaasan as he explained, “Hokage-sama and Tsuchikage-sama finalized a peace treaty. From now on, it's just clean up from all the destruction and damage that was caused.” There was a pause before an excited squeal rang through the room and Kaasan hugged Tousan.

 

Of course, none of this registered to me. I stopped listening after 'The war is coming to its end.' and instead lost myself in my thoughts.

 

Not good... not good at all. The end of the war means that Naruto will be born in like a year. I have really got to pull myself together and start thinking like a Nara. I have up to a year to think up a fool-proof plan to save Tousan, Kaasan, and the entire village. Should be easy, right?

 

Who am I kidding. The village is screwed.

 

No, I can't think like that. I know Naruto like the back of my hand. Well, not really, but I do remember some stuff, so I should be able to come up with a solution that could work. I do have a big advantage seeing as I can practically predict the future, as long as I haven't screwed anything up since I've been here. Alright, let's see what I can remember.

 

Kaasan gave birth to Naruto in a secret location while guarded. Because she was giving birth, the seal was weakened so Tousan helped to keep the seal from failing or something. Then the masked guy came in, Naruto was kidnapped and then retrieved by Tousan, the Kyuubi was released and was controlled by masked guy… Alright, let's see. After masked guy goes away, Tousan leads Kyuubi to where Kaasan and Naruto are. Kaasan holds Kyuubi down with her chains and volunteers to have Kyuubi placed back into her slowly dying body. Tousan says, fuck that and declares that Konoha will need the power of the nine tails in the future. He says he'll seal Kyuubi's Yin side in himself and the Yang half in Naruto. Doing so, he dies because of the jutsu he used. Kaasan ends up dying because she exhausted herself to death and was clawed by the nine tails or something along those lines. Oh right, after they die, Hiruzen comes in and takes Naruto in.

 

Hmm, now that I think about it, there might actually be something I could do. If I were to go g-

 

“So, what was it that you needed to tell me?” Jiraiya asked, jarring me from my very important train of thought.. I looked up at him puzzled. What was he talking about?

 

“Oh, right. Well, it's actually about Minato and I…” Kaasan said. She sounded pretty.... nervous? What the hell? I can't remember anything like this in the anime. Did I change something?! Oh shi-

 

“I'm pregnant..” Kaasan said as she looked Jiraiya directly in the eyes.

 

Jiraiya's face slackened in shock for only a brief moment before a smile took over his, Minato, and Kaasan's face. While all the celebration was going on around me, I was drowning in despair. Nine months, ten rather since it was a Jinchuriken birth… That's all I have left to come up with a perfect plan to save everyone. I can't even use ninjutsu or genjutsu! Well, I can use some but I still suck at it. Anyways, what am I going to do? I seriously need to just sit down and write it all out. I get too distracted with just thinking it over in my head.

 

“Wait, how far along are you?” Jiraiya asked after they had calmed down slightly. Kaasan grinned as she said, “Two months already. We wrote to you as soon as we found ou-” Scratch that. I only have about eight months. I completely tuned out everything else around me as I got lost in thought about how the hell I was going to play hero when I was only four.

 

Looks like I have some work to do.


	3. Formulate A Plan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Naruto's birth looms over Akane, and she finally lets someone in on her secret.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2? Chapter 2. Lemme know your thoughts.

 

I am officially _freaking the fuck out_. Kaasan is due to have Naruto any day now and I still have to work out the kinks in my plan. Yes, I do have somewhat of a plan but it's just the basics. If Kaasan went into labor today, my plan would most likely fail completely. I seriously wish I had started working on this earlier. Fuck, if only I hadn’t wasted so much time being in denial about everything, I would have had more time to plan. No, I still find it hard to accept all this is real, even after five years. It just is impossible for-

 

Taking a steadying breath, I fought off the now familiar feeling of welling panic as I dismissed those thoughts. The hardwood floor under my feet began to slowly wear away from my furious pacing. If anyone were to walk by, I'm sure they'd see smoke coming out my ears from overworking my brain. My pacing only became faster as my thoughts traveled to impossible outcomes that always ended in everyone's tragic death.

 

The situation was extremely delicate. If I changed one thing, I could cause a chain reaction that would ultimately end in Naruto's death or destroy the entire village. It was kind of like that game Jenga. You have all your pieces stacked but if judged incorrectly, thinking you can change the structure successfully when in fact that piece you just took out held the whole tower up, everything collapses and there is no way to fix it. I had to think of a plan that was perfect and had at least three back up plans if something went wrong. I am seriously considering going up to the Nara clan, telling them I'm some kind of psychic and have them come up with a plan. Or maybe I could go to the clan-murdering Itachi? He was just as smart as the Nara's and he seems to love the village, so maybe he would be more likely to help. Hmmm.Well, he’s still pretty young. Despite him teaching me so much about fighting, I doubt he’d be able to come up with a plan better than mine in this short of notice.

 

Don’t get me wrong, despite our ongoing somewhat friendly banter, Itachi is actually one of my favorite Naruto characters, so I’m in no way bashing him. Actually, my top favourites are 1)Kakashi 2)Minato 3)Itachi 4)Gaara 5)Jiraiya. Sixth is definitely everyone else in the Akatsuki. I know, I just can’t help it! They're so awesome. Maybe I can defect from the village, get some super awesome ninja skills, then join up with the Akatsuki. On second thought, Kaasan and Tousan might kill me if I did... quite literally. Well, anyways where was I? Oh right, Itachi. I admired him for his actions. He murdered his entire family (save for Sasuke) for the sake of the village that he loved and protected with his life, even if Danzo ordered him to and everything about Tobi. He even let Sasuke believe that he was just some murdering jackass that killed everyone just to piss him off and make his life miserable.

 

Itachi really should get more screen time for before he murdered his clan. Damn, they should make a spin-off all about Itachi and his life, from when he was born to where he died. I would so watch that. I should write a letter to the creator of Naruto and ask if they will, I could even help write it with my now first hand experience. Wait a second, should I just cut out the middle man and write it myself? Okay, I am so doing this. I'm going to make Tousan buy me a journal.

 

Wait, what was I talking about? Oh fuck, yeah, I'm completely screwed.

 

Evidently, my furious pacing attracted some attention because I saw a blur of white out of the corner of my eye. I darted my eyes over to Jiraiya who was standing in the doorway, looking at me like I was completely insane. I stopped mid-step and just stared right back at him. I wasn't really paying attention as I was still immersed in my thoughts and plans so I didn't even realise how creeped out Jiraiya was getting. “Uhh..” He started as he shifted on his feet. “Kid? You alright? This isn't one of your pranks again, is it?”

 

I snapped out of it and brought my attention to the Sanin. I saw the creeped out look he was sending my way and realised how weird it must look from his perspective. I shook my head slightly before giving up on thinking and letting my whole body go limp, lying on the floor with a deep sigh. It really sucks being only five years old and having to try to save everyone you love from a rampaging demon controlled by a psycho killer. Oh, and I can't even tell anyone about it unless I want to go through T&I and have them poke and prod my brain and potentially execute me because of the amount of intel I’m currently carrying about every hidden village and the future in general. How would I explain all my knowledge of events that haven't even happened yet? I never realised just how exhausting it could be in the Naruto world...

 

I gave another sigh and let my eyes slide closed. I heard heavy yet graceful, almost non existent foot steps make their way in my direction and stop just in front of me. When a shadow fell over my eyes, I scrunched up my face and opened one eye. I looked up at Jiraiya who was looming over me and gave him a bland look.

 

“Yes?” I asked when all he did was look at me like he was reading words across my forehead. He kept the calculating look on his face as he tilted his head slightly. “Something on your mind?”

 

I mentally rolled my eyes at his question. I could think of 100 come-backs that a five year old shouldn't know and would probably encourage him to send me to the hospital to get my brain checked. But, I held them back and gave him a slight smile.

 

“Just trying to figure out why I can't do any ninjutsu or genjutsu.” I watched him as a frown fell on his face. He could see right through me. Huh, guess he wasn't one of only three legendary Sanin's for nothing. He looked as if he was going to pry further but, like always, something interrupted him.

 

“Yo, Sensei.” I froze at the voice as memories flooded my brain. Jiraiya seemed to notice this as his frown deepened, but I didn't really pay attention to him. My focus was on the new voice in the house who was talking with Tousan just outside the room.

 

Shit. How could I forget? One of my top five favourite characters and someone who is essential to _a lot_ of the events in the series. Not only that, but he was someone who could either greatly help or greatly hurt my plan to save Tousan and Kaasan. I'm an idiot.

 

When I heard two people enter the room, I turned to look at the door to see Tousan and, yep you guessed it, Kakashi Hatake. I had forgotten the one and only Copy-nin, son of the famed White Fang. You know, the one who was single handedly one of the most affected by Tousan's death?

 

I kept my gaze on Kakashi as all these thoughts flooded my brain. Once again, I was creeping someone out and it was still unintentional. Tousan clearing his throat was what made me aware of my intense staring at the 13 year-old ANBU operative. Oh yeah, I forgot that he joined ANBU after Tousan became the Hokage…

 

“Ah, Kakashi-san! This is my daughter, Akane.” Tousan gave a quick glance my way, silently telling me to stop being so creepy. Sorry Tousan, but this is another opportunity I'll be exploiting. “Akane, this is Kakashi Hatake, my student.”

 

Without smiling, I held my small hand out for Kakashi to shake as I kept my eyes on his. He reached his hand out slowly to shake mine, but when he tried to take his hand back I tightened my grip on him. I brought his hand up to my face and brought my gaze away from his eyes to stare at the palm of his hand. The room was silent and I could feel the waves of dread rolling off of Tousan and Jiraiya while I studied his hand for almost a whole minute. “Kakashi-senpai, did you know I'm a psychic?” I glanced creepily up to his face as I heard both Tousan and Jiraiya groan at my antics. Little did they know, I kinda was, at least in this world.

 

I saw Kakashi raise an eyebrow as he slowly drawled in a bored tone, “ No, I was unaware.”

 

Wow, I think the manga and anime may have greatly underestimated how bad off Kakashi was after losing Obito and Rin. I mean, I know he was effected by their deaths, you can tell just by the fact he visited the memorial stone like, everyday. I understand that, but right now, the Kakashi standing in front of me seems like... an empty shell. No, more like a lifeless doll. It's almost like he's given up. No, he doesn't seem completely devoid of emotion, so maybe there's still something keeping him going.

 

Oh. That something must be Tousan. Well, that just puts even more pressure on me.

 

Slowly, I narrowed my eyes at him. “Well, it's true. And I'll prove it to you, free of charge.” Without waiting for an answer and still not letting go of his hand, I stared as creepily as I could right in his eyes. I held his gaze and the whole time, watching as he stared straight back at me with his visible lazy, dead eye. Finally, I blinked and took a deep breath.

 

“Your birthday is September 15th so your sign is Virgo which means you're compatible with Capricorn's. Someone you know who is close to you has this sign. I can't get a clear picture on the person, but they relate with the colour green, spandex, and black bowl haircuts. Also, you will develop an obsession with something small and orange which you will carry around with you everywhere, annoying everyone else with it to no end. You will have a habit of being late for everything and coming up with bad excuses. Your lucky and unlucky number is 7. Your lucky colours are orange, pink, and dark blue. Your unlucky colours are red and black. Eventually, you will overcome your internal struggle by facing your inner demons in a long struggle, but you will never forget about it or entirely release those demon until you are willing to be at peace with them. And that's all I got.”

 

I dropped his hand and looked around the room at the shocked faces. Tousan looked like he just saw pigs fly and Jiraiya just kinda looked confused.

 

It's kind of funny actually. The part about him being compatible with Capricorns is something I actually looked up one day in my old life while procrastinating and I learned that Kakashi, who is a Virgo, is compatible with Gai, who is a Capricorn. For some reason I thought it was hilarious when I first found out. Probably because it was four in the morning.

 

Kakashi stared at me with those droopy eyes he always has before cocking his head to the side, like a cute little puppy. “Problems with green and bowl cuts? That doesn't look good for me.” He carefully backed up so he wasn't as close to me and turned towards his sensei. “So, about that jutsu you were talking about.”

 

I stood there, mouth agape as Tousan spared a confused, wary look towards me before he and Kakashi continued on their conversation normally. Did he not catch anything else like maybe, I don't know, the part about facing his inner demon?! Seriously, if he wasn't cute as hell, I would kick his ass. Well, I would try.

 

What? I may look only five years old, but I'm technically twenty-seven years old now, and that makes Kakashi younger then me. A lot younger. So that means I am allowed to call him cute by all means. Also, when he gets to be in his twenties like the first time you see him in the series, he's fucking hot. Yes, he is my favourite character, and no that has yet to change. I may have had a crush over him back when I was 17, but that was years ago and long before this was my _reality_. So no, I do not have a crush over the small ANBU operative now. I mean, I'm not a pedophile or craddle-robber or anything, so no way. Maybe when he’s older I might-

 

“Akane?”

 

My head snapped up at the sound of my name as I looked towards Jiraiya with wide eyes. Looks like I got side tracked again. “Huh?” Jiraiya shook his head in disbelief and nodded his head towards the kitchen. “Minato and Kakashi already went in the kitchen. I asked if you were coming but it seems you were too busy drooling over some fantasy in your head.”

 

I swiped the back of my hand over my mouth and- oh I guess I was drooling. Wow, I needed to get my head in check. Chuckling nervously I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment. “Oh, I was just thinking-” Wait. Perfect opportunity. I smirked in my head before smiling up at Jiraiya innocently. “I was just thinking of how nice Kakashi-senpai's ass looked in those pants.” And with that I turned and walked into the kitchen, noticing the completely shocked look on the Sages face.

 

It wasn't until I had sat down at the table, across from Tousan and next to Kakashi, that I heard Jiraiya's cry of, “WHAT!?” Both males in the room looked at the door and then to me, looking for an explanation. I just put on my innocent face and shrugged. “I don't know. Must be hallucinating or something.”

 

And with that, Jiraiya came stomping in and sat down at the only empty seat next to Tousan. He glared at me, but surprisingly kept quiet about the incident when questioned, only mumbling something about 'being only five' and 'wasn't me she heard it from'. Probably thought no one would believe it.

 

After a few awkward moments of silence, conversation started back up between sensei and kohai. “How's Kushina been lately? I haven't seen her much.”

 

Minato grimaced slightly before groaning. “She's out with Mikoto buying baby clothes. Even though we still the ones that Akane wore.”

 

And with that change of topic, once again I was snapped back to the problem at hand. How am I going to save Tousan and Kaasan, the entire village, and manage not to screw up future events too bad? Dammit. I have officially run out of time. If I don't act now, they'll die. Simple as that. The plan that I roughly constructed in just barely a month probably won't even work. I have nothing. Maybe if I wasn't so selfish these past few years, I would have put more time into this. But of course, I didn't. Now, they're going to die thanks to me. Damn. I'm a fucking idiot. A selfish fucking brat.

 

Slowly, I stood up from my seat, no longer interested in being around anyone, not even the fact that Kakashi was there wanting to make me stay. I made my way to the door as quickly as I could without being suspicious, all the while avoiding looking at the others.“Hey kid. Where are you going?” Jiraiya called from behind me.

 

Without pausing, I made it to the door and without turning around I just said, “My room.” Before running out and down the hall. I darted through my door, softly closing it before jumping face down on my bed and smothering my face with a pillow. Ignoring the tears that began soaking the white fabric of my pillow, struggling over the only thought racing through my mind.

 

What am I going to do?

 

=-=============---------------------------------------===================================

 

Three days later had me refusing to come out of my room no matter how much Tousan and Kaasan begged and bribed me. I couldn't face them. Any day now Kaasan will go into labor and I won't be able to do anything while they die. The worst part is that I know what's going to happen, but there's nothing I can do to stop it. I have to sit idly by while they sacrifice themselves for their village and child. I just can't... I can't look at them while knowing they'll die in only a few days. I'm just as well as murdering them at this point.

 

Think about this for a minute: You happen to overhear two people plotting the murder of the Feudal Lord that will happen in three days. You have two options. Option one is going to the authorities and telling them this. The catch is that they'll question how you know or if you're even telling the truth and their number one suspect is the person who knew about the murder, you. People don't just happen to overhear a murder plot for an important person such as a Feudal Lord, so there is only a slim chance they'll believe you. Option two is to say nothing. You go on your way knowing someone is going to get murdered but you don't say anything. Doesn't that make you just as bad as the murderer? You could have possibly prevented the murder but you never said anything so really, you let him die.

 

You murdered him.

 

I'm going to murder my Tousan and Kaasan if I don't tell someone.

 

But how do I do that? Do I march right up to the Nara Clan and explain how I'm actually a reincarnated twenty-seven year old from a different universe and where I'm from, this is just a fictional story and ninjas don't exist? So because of this, I know that the Kyuubi is going to attack Konoha and my parents are going to die so I need your help with a plan since you guys are super smart? I would be sent to a loony bin faster then Naruto can say ramen. I don't have an option one. There isn't anything I can do.

 

Those were the thoughts going through my head non stop these past three days. I haven't slept, bathed, ate, or drank anything and haven't seen Tousan or Kaasan at all. To sum it up, I feel like shit and I'm depressed. A soft knock on my door made my heart sink just a little more because I knew who was on the other side. That in turn reminded me what was going to happen to that person. Then I remembered what a piece of garbage I was for being weak and not doing anything.

 

“Aka-chan... Please open the door.” Minato's soft muffled voice came through from the other side of the door as I took a pillow and covered my head. I can't...

 

There was a slight pause of silence before a sigh came from the other side of the door. “Akane, if you don't open the door, I'm coming in anyway. This has gone on long enough.” Another pause before I heard a click and then the door. I must have been a sorry sight to see. My room was pitch black, my blankets and pillows were thrown around my bed, my hair looked like a rats nest, and I hadn't bathed in three days. All that just made me feel worse... damn this sucks.

 

Minato flicked the light on and made his way over towards me. He sat on the edge of my bed, right at the small of my back, and I could feel his gaze on the back of my head.... or my pillow I guess since that's still over my head. There was more silence before Minato finally sighed. “I don't know what's wrong until you tell me. I mean if you don't like the idea about having a little brother or-”

 

With that, I sat right up and looked wide-eyed at him. “No! It's not that, I'm really looking forward to it!” Minato just looked shocked for a minute as I realised what I did and who I was now looking at. I suddenly reverted back to depressed, quickly looking down at my covers with a sullen expression, the familiar hot burning welling up beneath my eyes. I heard Minato shift before I felt his hand under my chin, lifting my head to look at him.

 

“Then what's wrong?” Minato said it in such a low gentle tone that I couldn't help but to look at him. As soon as my eyes met his, I broke down. I let out a small painful noise before lunging forward and wrapping my arms around his neck, finally letting all my tears out. While hiccuping and sobbing, I tried my best to tell him what was wrong, but even _I_ didn't know what I was trying to say. I felt Tousan rubbing my back as he tried to calm me down from my wailing. I may be twenty-seven, but even I can break down under this much guilt and pressure.

 

Eventually, I calmed down to just hiccuping every few seconds, but I had basically cried myself out. Slowly, Tousan pulled back so he could look at my face. “Now can you tell me what made you so upset?”

 

My eyebrows drew together before I managed to put together a sentence that I thought made sense together. “I-I just don't want _hic_ you or Kaasan to die. And I can't do anything and I don't know what _hic_ to do. How d-do I _hic_ stop it?” I rubbed my eyes with the heel of my hand, trying to force myself to stop crying and get ahold of myself. It seems a bit too late now, so I should at least try to tell him. If he believes me, he might live. If he doesn't, he'll probably die. Either way, I have to at least try to make him believe me, to try and save them with one last attempt.

 

Minato looked confused and I could tell what he was going to say so I just continued on. “I know you probably won't believe me, I mean, it sounds like I'm completely insane. Even I don’t quite believe me to be honest. But I swear to you this is the complete truth and I will do anything for you to believe me, or at least believe me when I say this: When Kaasan gives birth, someone will release the Kyuubi. Kaasan will attempt to hold it still with her chakra chains and will die from exhaustion while you perform a jutsu that traps the Kyuubi's Yang and Yin sides in you and Naruto. Not only that, but you'll die from performing the jutsu.”

 

I looked straight into his shocked eyes, trying to show how serious I was. “I know this for a fact. Unless you can take better precautions, a man in a mask will come in seconds after Naruto is born, kidnap Naruto, release the Kyuubi, and control it so it will destroy Konoha. I'm telling the truth right now. You have to believe me, Tousan. If you don't, you, Kaasan, and countless civilians and shinobi will die.”

 

I stopped and let out a shaky breath, closing my eyes for a moment to get ahold of my emotions. After a few seconds of silence, I opened my eyes and once again met Minato's shocked gaze. There was only one word I could think of in that moment.

 

“Please.”

 

For the first time in my new life, I saw Minato completely serious. I watched as he took in and digested everything I said with a face that gave away nothing of what he was thinking or feeling. This must be what he looks like in his Hokage meetings he's always at.

 

After minutes of contemplating silence, he looked back up and met my serious gaze, tension and anticipation heavy in the air. Finally, he spoke. “How would you know any of this? How do you even know about the Kyuubi in the first place, or of Kushina being the container for the nine-tails?” That question was so important. It showed that he isn't completely dismissing me as crazy. It gave me so much hope that he might believe me, that he and Kaasan might live after all, despite his accusatory tone. But how was I going to explain all this?

 

Do I tell the truth? Well I have so far but... geez this is too ridiculous. Before I could back out of it, I asked a question that would probably change both my, and Tousan's life, however short they may be. “Do you believe in reincarnation?

 

I could see the disbelief and skepticism written on his face. He shook as his head as he said, “Reincarna- what? Where are you going with this?”

 

I took a deep breath and told him. Everything. Down to the last detail. From my past world, the day I died, how I was reborn here, and finally how this was all just a story in my old world and how I vowed to change it for the better. I told him of my reluctance to believe at first and how I still wasn’t sure it was all real because it was _impossible._ I told him all of it and through the whole explanation, he just silently sat there with that unreadable mask resting on his face.

 

After explaining, we sat in silence for fuck only knows how long while I allowed him to take all of that information in and think it all over. In complete honesty, I knew he wasn't going to believe it. Even I don't really believe it. Maybe I really did get hit by that truck and I'm actually just stuck in a coma right now. Heh, if I can't even fully believe myself, then there is no way that Tousan will ev-

 

“Can you prove it?”

 

My head snapped up and my eyes went impossibly wide. He... He is actually giving me a chance? He isn't just brushing it off as a dream I had or something? “Y-Yes! I can!” My face was still slack with disbelief as I pushed myself up and knelt right in front of him on my bed.

 

I thought for a second before nodding to myself. “You were an orphan at a young age and lived at the orphanage. In the academy, you were always friends with all the clan heirs and actually helped them be friends also. Eventually, yet met Kaasan and Mikoto and they joined your group. When you graduated, you were lucky enough to have Jiraiya-san, one of only three Sanin, as your sensei. He helped you with your wind chakra since it is so uncommon in the fire country. Kushina was kidnapped by some ninja and you ran to rescue her as soon as you heard the news. Because of your outstanding power and helpfulness in the previous shinobi war, you were chosen to be the next Hokage. In the original story, you were only supposed to have one kid, Naruto, so I was never supposed to exist here. You wanted to name your son Naruto because it was a character in Jiraiya-san's first book. When Naruto is born... well you know the rest from what I told you earlier.” I stopped to breathe and to see if he was starting to believe me but of course, I couldn't tell. “I can tell you more. Like about Kaasan, Pervy Sage, Kakashi... If you'll believe me then I'll-”

 

“I...think your telling the truth.”

 

Jaw dropping. That was the only way I could explain how I felt. He... no way. “What?”

 

Tousan looked at me with a very faint smile before going back to his mask. “Everything you've said is true. Also, I always did think you acted older then you were and knew more then a five year old should. I mean, I still think it seems impossible and maybe I still don't really fully believe but... there has to be a way for you to know all of that information. I can't think of any other way to-”

 

All of a sudden, he got a 'I just thought of something' look across his face and finally smiled for real. “I got it. Wait here.” Without waiting for me to respond, he got up and left not just the room, but the house. Where the hell is he going and just what the hell does he 'got'?

 

I sighed and got up to find Kaasan. Oh well. I'll find out soon enough. I just hope he will believe me enough to listen to my warning.

 

I saw Kaasan on the couch, reading one of Jiraiya's books and drinking some water. I guess I should apologise for being difficult. I sighed once again. Waiting for Tousan to come back will probably put my nerves to the test. Please hurry back Tousan.

 

\--------------------------------==================================-----------------------------------

 

Well... Inoichi came over. Turns out Tousan went out and told Inoichi that he had official, top secret Hokage business he needed help with immediately. Basically he had me tested to see if I was crazy. When he diagnosed me as sane, Tousan asked if he could find any unusual memories from, let's say, a previous life to prove I was telling the truth. Inoichi, while confused, did as he was asked and found himself in complete and utter incredulity.

 

He found a memory from my previous life. My death in particular. He came out of my head looking white and stuttering. I thought it was pretty funny. Tousan didn't. That meant I was telling the truth. It meant that a nine tailed demon that wanted to destroy Konoha was going to be released and he and his wife were going to die.

 

This was the part where he was supposed to panic and go in denial... if he were a normal civilian. But he wasn't. Far from it in fact. He was Minato Namikaze, The Yellow Flash, Hokage of Konohagakure, and he was going to solve the problem before it began. But he found himself in a similar position as me. There was no time.

 

After Inoichi left with a shinobi promise to his Hokage to tell no one about this, Minato turned to me. He stared at me in awe before shaking his head. “Okay... so somehow you were actually reincarnated. That in itself is hard to believe, even though I know you're telling the truth. What's really seeming impossible is the fact that this whole world is just a story in a book for you. It's just so... unfathomable.”

 

I sighed as I sunk further into the pillows of my bed. “I know. And to be honest, it's hard to believe it myself. Actually, no matter how real this seems, deep down I'm telling myself that I'm still in a coma back home. But there’s information that I would have no idea about, so it’s impossible for my brain to make it up if I were in a coma. It’s impossible either way.”

 

I looked up at Minato, taking in his furrowed expression. After all the serious talk earlier, he was finally letting his emotions through to his facial expression, mask off. Sighing once again, I opened my mouth to ask what he was going to do, only for him to speak before I could.

 

“So the Kyuubi will be released upon Naruto's birth. How can we prevent that?” Although he asked, I knew he wasn't expecting me to answer. He was asking himself, putting all the responsibility on himself. Nope, not happening Tousan.

 

“Look,” I started, making sure he was giving me his attention before continuing. “I didn't tell you so that you could shoulder all this weight and do it all by yourself. I told you so we can work together to find a solution and get past this alive together. No one is expecting you to stop a demon attack by yourself so stop trying and let me help you. Hell if you want, we can tell Pervy Sage, Kaasan, Kakashi-senpai, whoever if you think they can help. But get this through your skull. You are _not_ on your own in this. Got it?” Upon finishing my grand speech, I gave him a harsh 'I dare you to challenge me' look.

 

Minato stared, eyebrows raised, for a few seconds before breathlessly laughing. “You mean like you were trying to do?” He shook his head and then turned to face me directly. “I suppose your right. It might take some getting used to, knowing that you're actually an adult, I mean.”

 

I gave him a toothy grin. “Don't worry too much about that. I'll always be your daughter, no matter how old I actually am. Besides, I act more like I look then my actual age.” Minato gave a small smile and ruffled my hair with his hand, prompting me to cry in annoyance and push his hand away. He laughed while I pouted before a thought brought me back to the issue at hand.

 

“To be honest, I don't think there is a way to stop the Kyuubi from being released.” I looked down at my hands that were fiddling with the blankets on my bed. It was a completely honest thought that I had realised just recently that caused me to have to try and think around this. How can the Kyuubi be released but cause no damage or death so we can all get out of this safely?

 

That's when it hit me. The seal. The jutsu that Tousan used to contain the beast half in himself and half in Naruto had been a spur of the moment, last resort kind of deal. If he had more time and prepared, maybe he could find a different way that would save his life, Kaasan's life, and many others if he could act faster then he did in the manga. The problem with this is that I highly doubt that with what little time we have left, Tousan will come up with a different jutsu to use that will be just as effective without giving up his own life.

 

Well, there is another option that I've been trying to push out of my mind for awhile. Tousan sealed the Kyuubi in himself and Naruto because he said that they'd need it in the future. Well, if Madara/Tobi can be taken down before he climbs to maximum power, then the Nine-Tails power isn't actually needed. Helpful, but not necessary. So what if we let events play out and… and seal the Kyuubi back in Kaasan before she dies. I know, just the thought of it makes me sick with myself, but maybe... no. Fuck. I can't do that. I promised I'd save them both, not decided to kill one off. Shit, what is wrong with me?

 

But what else can we do? We have no options left. We either need to stop the most powerful shinobi on earth from releasing the Kyuubi before all that happens or come up with a damn good plan to seal him away without killing Tousan and Kaasan. But there is no one who is that good with sealing, so there's-

 

Wait. Kaasan is from Uzushiogakure and from the Uzumaki clan, well known for their sealing.

 

Well shit, why didn't I think of this before?

 

Leaping up from my bed and causing my deep-in-thought Tousan to jump slightly, I leaned right in his face. “Where's Kaasan?!” Immediately after shouting that, I spun around and made for the door. Quickly following, Tousan kept pace behind me. “She just went out with Mikoto. I think they went to the tea shop they like so much, why?”

 

Rounding around once again to face him, I quickly took a deep breath to begin my explanation, only to be interrupted by three loud taps. Two head jerked to look out the window, seeing a small ANBU member with silver spiked hair. God dammit, now is not the time! Tousan quickly walked over to the window and opened it up. Before he could even think of saying hello, Kakashi let out in a somewhat anxious voice, “Kushina-san just went into labor.” Two sets of eyes widen in absolute shock and horror. It's over... it's all over.

 

Slowly, Tousan turned his head towards me, eyes panicking, confused and asking what to do. But I couldn't offer him any comfort. I was just as lost. All I could do is shake my head and watch as Tousan's face filled with despair. It's true. It's really over for us. Tousan and Kaasan... will die.

 

Damn, I really fucked up.

 


	4. I Failed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Kyuubi attacks, and it takes lives with it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, you guys actually like this thing, haha. I'm genuinely surprised! Pat me would be thrilled! Anyways, sorry, it's been awhile, but here's the next chapter I edited for you guys!

 

Remember how I said I didn't like Mikoto that much? Yeah, well now I really hate her. As soon as we heard the news, Tousan ordered Kakashi to bring me to the Uchiha compound and stay with Mikoto and Fugaku while he left to go help Kaasan. No matter how much I resisted, Kakashi didn't seem to care. Within minutes we reached the main house despite my struggles, Kakashi sparring no time in bringing me right in the house. Mikoto, while surprised, quickly took me in, explaining that Fugaku was out at the moment.

As soon as I was brought into the dining room, Kakashi left, most likely to go help guard Kaasan. Also as soon as I reached the dining room, I broke free of Mikoto's grasp and sprinted for the nearest window, pushing chakra down my legs to help me run faster. Reaching the window, I grabbed onto it and threw it open... only to be grabbed around the waist by Mikoto. Once again, I struggled and resisted, but to no avail. 

Eventually, I had to be put into the spare bedroom while Mikoto stood by the door, and that's where I am now. Trapped in this room while Tousan and Kaasan are out there right now, possibly only hours from dying. Why... why did Tousan keep me stuck here when he knew what was going to happen?

Actually, I knew exactly why. He was planning to go with the original story line. He was planning to sacrifice himself to save the village so he wanted me here, to keep me safe. That bastard. I'll kill him when I get out of here, I swear I will… My eyes lowered to my hands as I felt my face suddenly fall, my energy dissipating. There isn't anyway I can save them now. I'm stuck here with no way out, no plan, and no power to do shit. Leaning against the nearest wall, I sunk to the ground and brought up my knees, letting my forehead rest against them. 

There's nothing I can do. I failed. My only goal in this world, with years to come up with a plan, and I failed with no plan.

The next thing I knew, a loud, deafening roar broke out, causing me to wince, trying to cover my ears. I was up on my feet and at the window before Mikoto regained her senses. Looking out, I saw something that would be burned in my mind for the rest of my second life, a terrifying view that would forever haunt me. Kurama in all his glory, looming over Konoha.

Tousan and Kaasan... they'll both die. I heard my heart pick up speed, pounding as my breathing sped up. Something in me sparked, I felt something in me surge. Gripping the window sill, staring at this massive beast, I made a quick resolve. I'll stop Tousan and Kaasan from dying at all costs. No matter what. I have to.

Face and mind set in determination, I lunged out the window before Mikoto could even think of stopping me. Taking off as fast as my legs would let me, I ignored the distressed voice that called after me, taking to the rooftops to avoid the awed onlookers. I don't know how, but I'm going to save them. I will. I know the board, the pieces, the players, I know the next move before it's made. I just have to find a way to use this to my benefit. I'm going to save Tousan and Kaasan if it kills me, because I don't know what I'd do otherwise.

* * *

 

Once again, I made a stupid declaration with no idea of how to go through with it. I currently was approaching the safehouse where Kaasan and a newly born Naruto were, pushing more chakra into my legs as I ignored the burning. I have to choice but to wing it and hope for the best I suppose. Right about now, Tousan was probably releasing Kurama from Tobi's control which left me very little time. I had until Tousan lead the giant beast over here to come up with something. Great.

Reaching their location, I spared a quick moment of relief at finding Kaasan’s chakra barrier absent. As I sprinted across the clearing, I saw just how exhausted Kaasan was. She was clutching Naruto, standing there in the doorway with shaking legs, sweat on her brow. The release of the Kyuubi took a lot out of her. She really did look near death. Shaking my head, I ran up to her. “Kaasan!” Startled, she snapped her head in my direction as her eyes went wide, possibly with fear for me. “A-Akane? What are you doing here, you need to go, now!” Ignoring her for now, I stopped just in front of her, taking in gulps of air after my run.

“No time... to explain... Tousan will bring Kurama... over here. He'll try to seal Yin in him... and Yang in Naruto but the jutsu that splits the Yin and Yang will kill him.” Finally regaining my breath, I looked at Kaasan with as much seriousness I could manage. “I need a jutsu to seal the Nine-Tails while not killing anyone.”

Still completely shocked, Kaasan went silent. Apparently, she realized the severity of what was to come, so she looked at the ground in thought. I stood there, face grim, panting from pushing myself so hard. My mind felt like it was racing, yet completely void at the same time. This was it, the time had come. Kaasan and Tousan would either live or die in less than an hour. Fuck, why? Why?!

“What’s the jutsu?” I looked up in shock, being pulled from my spiraling thoughts, seeing Kaasan looking determined with a scowl over her normal soft features. Wracking my brain, I recited everything I remembered about the Sealing jutsu, everything down to the hand movements I managed to conjure up from my brain. Thank you past me for being such a goddamn nerd. Nodding along, her face contorted more and more grim with each word. By the time I finished explaining, she nodded and took a deep breath, sighing wearily. Confused, I just watched as she closed her eyes, staying silent. After a few beats, she opened her eyes, an ignited fire lit behind them that almost took my breath away.

Leaning down slightly, she gave me a soft smile and clapped a hand on my shoulder. “I need you to do me a big favor, Akane.”

Eyebrows drawing together, I just nodded. What the hell is Kaasan thinking? I had just changed so much from the original story line, there was no way for me to predict what was going to happen next. I could have just killed everyone, and I wouldn’t even know it until it happened. Fuck, not knowing, not being able to know step by step what was going to happen next was probably one of the most terrifying feelings.

I watched with unrestrained curiosity as she cradled Naruto with one arm and started to explain, “I have a jutsu that I need you to try to learn really fast. There’s no one else who can do it, only those with Uzumaki blood. I know you’ve been having trouble with your ninjutsu and genjutsu, so I’m going to need you to really try hard for me, okay?”

Suddenly, realization dawned on me, washing over me like ice cold water in my veins. She was going to have me use the chains to hold down Kyuubi. Fuck, there’s no way. If I couldn’t even do a simple ninjutsu even an Academy student could, how the hell is it going to be possible for me to restrain the Kyuubi, the nine tails, with chakra chains? My uncertainty must have shown on my face as Kaasan gave me a strained smile in a clear attempt to mask her own trepidation and lingering pain. “I know you can do it. You just have to do exactly like I say okay?”

Still not sure of what she was planing, I had no choice but to agree. If she needed me to do it, and truly thought I could, then I have no choice but to put my faith in her. I have to do this for Kaasan. Determination settling on my face, I nodded grimly as she stood back up, adjusting Naruto up on her shoulder as she looked down at me with pride. Shit, I hope I can do this right.

Quickly running me through the motions, along with the quickest lesson on what to do with my chakra ever, we suddenly found ourselves with no time left. The ground began to shake with the force of the gigantic demon’s weight as I looked up to meet Kaasan’s gaze. She looked… grim. That’s not a good sign. Fuck, I hope she has a plan.

Speaking up over the pounding, I felt compelled to ask. “Kaasan, you have a plan right?” Kaasan appeared to relax slightly at my words, letting that same soft smile grace her lips as she nodded. Kaasan walked inside the house, setting Naruto down on the soft bundle of blankets thrown across the wooden table , placing a soft kiss to his forehead before turning around and walking towards me. Unsure of what to do, I just stood there as she crouched down and kissed my forehead. “I love you Akane, don’t ever forget that okay?” Confused yet again, I nodded and looked up at her.

“I love you too Kaasan.” Then, she stood back up with a smile and turned, looking out over the small clearing before a flash hit, Tousan suddenly transporting right in front of us, Kyuubi in tow.

Why did that feel so much like a goodbye?

Suddenly, too much was happening all at once. Tousan spotted me and gave me a grave look before shouting towards me to leave. Shaking my head, I opened my mouth to reply when Kyuubi burst from behind the trees, suddenly much closer than I’d originally thought. “Now Akane!” Kaasan’s yell jarred me from where I stood frozen to the spot as I swallowed hard, nodding before running out ahead for Tousan. Ignoring his yell, I widened my stance, narrowing my gaze up up the gigantic demon as I took a deep breath. My hands ran through the seals, all my focus needed to be solely on Kurama who was sprinting ever closer. I heard Tousan come to a stop behind me as he gave Kaasan and Naruto a once over before turning his attention back to me, a question on his lips that was soon drowned out.

I looked back to see the shock of Tousan’s face before I turned back as let my surroundings bleed away before zoning in, everything else fading in the background. It was just me and the Kyuubi. The roar of the Kyuubi, Tousan’s panicked shouts, everything was muffled until my focus was solely on the enormous demon looming over me. This was it, my only chance. I have the Uzumaki blood, I can do this. I have to.

I felt my chakra build inside me, concentrated only on the formation of those big chains I'd seen so many times in my past life. Overwhelmed at the sudden exhaustion, I closed my eyes and furrowed my brows, picturing the chains looping around Kyuubi’s legs, clamping down and holding tight. As soon as I felt the peak of my chakra build, nothing else but the chains in my mind, I heard myself yell almost subconsciously.

“Adamantine Sealing Chains!”

Chakra poured out of me, draining me of any strength, but determination to protect and to achieve kept me going. I had no idea if it was actually working or not, but I was scared of finding out. Hesitantly, I parted my eyes open slightly, my breath taken away at the sight as my eyes sprang open in shock.

Not 500 feet in front of me stood the Kyuubi in all his furious glory, teeth baring as he glared down at me, unmoving from the chains that weighed him down. I… did that? The chains shifted slightly, my focus slipping slightly at my shock as Kyuubi fought against them, groaning from the sheer strength that pressed against them. Fuck, I don’t know how long I can hold this. Gritting my teeth, I focused everything I had into holding down the Kyuubi, but I could already see the corners of my vision darkening, tunneling my view. What happens now? I shook my head of those thoughts as I thought of only holding the chains tight. All I knew was that I needed to keep the Kyuubi held, that rested solely on me.

Somewhere in the haze, I heard Kaasan and Tousan talking in what seemed like grief ridden voices, but I was too focused to make out the words. And then suddenly, those god forsaken words were yelled out, those words I had spent years trying to prevent being needed.

“Dead Demon Consuming Seal: Release!”

But it wasn’t the voice that I had remembered hearing it from.

Loosing my focus completely, I turned around just in time to see Kaasan finishing up her last hand sign, successfully splitting the nine-tails chakra. It seemed like the Kyuubi had noticed too as he lashed out, lunging straight for the three of us, causing me to pull my chakra tighter against Kurama. Clenching my teeth, I felt myself slipping into darkness. Somewhere behind me I heard another jutsu being performed, but I couldn’t for the life of me make out the words, or even who spoke them. In the heat of the moment, I found myself unable to track where the nine-tailed was sealed, mind only on keeping the Kyuubi still. And then it hit me. Face dropping, all thoughts flew from my head as I snapped my head around, watched as Kaasan performed the sealing jutsu, my vision swimming back instantly as I could do nothing but stare wide-eyed, Tousan standing on the side watching on in shocked disbelief. And then it was over, just like that. Kyuubi was no longer looming over Konoha, the silence left in his wake deafening. Kaasan stood there for only a second before her eyes rolled back and she dropped to the grass below.

In just those few quick seconds, so much had just been taken away. Seconds was all it took for my life to suddenly become a lot more empty. Kushina Uzumaki was dead.

“Kushina!” Tousan rushed over and caught Kaasan just before she hit the ground, lowering them both to the ground as he held her up by her shoulders. Unable to look away yet unable to react, I just stood there in frozen shock. Everything had happened so quickly, from performing the chakra chain jutsu to now had to be no more then two minutes passing. What… just happened?

I looked on as Tousan clutched an unresponsive Kaasan, tears starting to fall down his cheeks as he called her name yet again. Kaasan… she’s not… is she? Before I could elaborate on my thoughts, a sudden shrill cry snapped my attention to my left. From the dark recess of the safe-house, baby Naruto started to cry. Seeing that Tousan didn’t quite seem to notice, as if on auto pilot, I stumbled over to the doorway and made my way inside, feet dragging as I laid eyes on the whisker-faced baby. Reaching out a hand, I traced the whiskers with my fingertips before leaning over and picking up the bundle of blankets, cradling Naruto to my chest. Staggering towards the doorway, I looked out to see Tousan crouch over Kaasan's limp figure as I leaned against the doorframe, slowly sliging down until I was sitting against the frame. Looking down at the bundle in my arms, I heard the first thought float through my head.

He won’t be an orphan now.

I watched as little droplets of water landed on his marred cheeks. For some reason, that thought wasn’t as comforting as I thought it might be.

* * *

 

It must have only been a few minutes, but felt much more like hours before I moved from my place of cradling the now sleeping Naruto. Not only trying to mentally deflect my thoughts, but also from the massive physical toll the jutsu had caused me. I had refused to let my mind wander anywhere near what had just conspired, thinking only of how peaceful Naruto looked. Then, there was movement from the corner of my eye, but I just couldn’t look up just yet. If I looked up, it would be real. I would see Tousan, distraught over a now cold Kaasan. I just couldn’t.

But then I saw that Tousan had stood up and that drew my gaze to him. And of course, my betraying eyes darted down just as quickly on their own self destructive accord, only to be met with a white and red coat covering Kaasan almost entirely. I couldn’t help but to feel relieved. I don’t think my muddled brain could have handled it if I had actually seen Kaasan laying there this close without Tousan obstructing my veiw. But I found myself unable to look away from the covered figure. Under that piece of clothing was Kaasan. Kaasan who… who was dead. Kaasan was dead. I couldn’t save her. I could have done something but I didn’t. It was all my-

My gaze was blocked by a broad chest, but I still couldn’t shift my eyes from where I once saw her laying, unmoving coat where her chest should have risen and fallen with breaths. “Come on. Let’s get Naruto out of here.” Tousan’s gravely voice pulled me from my stupor as I looked up and felt crushed by what I saw. Tousan’s face was worn, almost void of emotions. He looked… defeated, broken. Of course he did. His wife just died, and it was all my fault.

Unable to react, I just let Tousan help me up and guide me back towards Konoha with an arm around my shoulders. I looked down yet again to watch little Naruto’s chest rise and fall with his fast breaths, just like Kaasan’s should have looked like. I learned in my past life that baby’s had higher respiratory rates than adults, just like their heartbeats. I guess that was true, looking at how fast he was breathing in his sleep. I was never good with babies, so I was never around them enough to ever really notice. I wonder how much stuff from my past life is still relevant in this one, as in science and such?

My thoughts wandered, anywhere to get away from what had happened. It seemed like years in grief stricken silence before we reached the city’s edge, finding none other then Hiruzen Sarutobi making his way towards us with a stern, indecipherable look, his ever present attire traded instead for his combat uniform. Despite knowing I should have reacted to the man’s presence, I couldn’t find any other emotion except empty as the ex-Hokage approached Tousan.

“Kyuubi?”

That was the only word he needed to say. The question was obvious. “Taken care of. Kushina managed to seal away the Kyuubi before she-“ Tousan’s sentence was interrupted by a choked noise that sounded much too similar to a whimper. Looking up yet again, I watched as realization dawned on Hiruzen’s face, jaw going slack with shock. “Kushina is…?”

I watched as Tousan struggled for words until I couldn’t watched him anymore. He was in so much pain without having to say it, so I heard myself speak up in a dead voice before I even realized I was talking. “Yes. Kaasan performed the Dead Demon Consuming Seal just before she died.” I looked back down at the mention of the seal, wondering if Naruto held half of the demon’s chakra or if Kaasan sealed it solely within herself. Seeing him still sleeping fitfully, I allowed myself a moment of relief. It’s a good thing he wouldn’t remember this day. It’s a shame that I will.

I didn’t look back up after that, staring at Naruto while Hiruzen dismissed Tousan, telling him he’d take care of the Hokage duties for the time being. Apparently agreeing nonverbally, Tousan was suddenly back to guiding me through Konoha. Not even a minute later, I heard a quiet voice coming from the other side of Tousan. “Sensei?” I didn’t look up, but I knew exactly who it was. Kakashi must have seen us walking back, probably wondering where Kaasan was. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Tousan shake his head, not even faltering in step as we moved past the ANBU operative.

Avoiding all the other fleeing civilians and ninjas, we snaked down back alleys and around burning rubble until we arrived back at the house, surprisingly still mostly intact despite the roof missing some tiles and other superficial damage. I thought just the sight of home would ease the rising dread and guilt clawing its way in my chest, but it just made me realize that the house was now without one of its members. I’d never see Kaasan at home again. I’d never see her preparing Tousan’s lunch or gossiping with Mikoto over tea. I’d never get to laugh while she poked fun at Kakashi or run away when she got so angry that she’d blow up at me or Tousan… It made me feel ever more emptier, only now realizing that was possible.

Still in silence, we made our way through the front door before just standing in the entryway. We no longer had anything to distract ourselves from reality, no longer able to avoid the fact that Kaasan was dead.

Inside the dark, silent house, we stood there for another few minutes before the repressed guilt washed over me in waves. I had five years to do something, anything, to stop Kaasan and Tousan from dying, and I spent it fucking around. I could have saved them both. If only I’d told Tousan sooner, then we could have figured out another sealing jutsu. If only I had told Jiraiya what was really bothering me when he asked, surely a Sanin would know more then me. If only I had learned the sealing jutsu myself, then it would be me who died, someone who wasn’t supposed to be here anyways, someone who was supposed to be dead. If only, If only….

I only heard myself crying when I was pulled from my thoughts by someone lifting Naruto out of my arms, a strong arm wrapping around my small frame. Hiccuping, I tried to pull away. I didn’t deserve to be comforted. I killed her. I killed Kaasan. I-

“I’m sorry. I-I’m so-o sorry T-Tousan! I didn’t m-mean to, I d-didn’t, I swe-ear! I- Oh god, I k-killed h-her. I killed K-Kaasan. I’m so s-sorry, I-“

Apologies flew from my mouth before my brain could process the words, my hiccuping interrupting me every other word. My guilt ridden apologies refused to let up, even as Tousan shushed me, holding me tightly as I tried to pull away.

“Akane, It’s not your fault.”

At those words, I looked up, tears staining my cheeks as I looked at him in distraught and disbelief. “Y-yes it w-was. I didn’t do a-anything. I c-could of stopped i-it. If only I-“

Shaking his head, Tousan spared a quick smile, no real happiness behind it, before pulling back slightly to look me in the eye, “You could be saying ‘if only’ the rest of your life, but the truth is, there was nothing either of us could do. Sure, you knew what was going to happen, but you were right in thinking that no one would believe you. You’re no older than five, it would have been chalked up to some deranged imagination. But despite that, you tried your best to come up with a solution by yourself. And when there was no time left, you forced me to believe in you, even if it was too late. There was nothing you, or I could have done despite how much we want there to be. Kushina, she had made a decision, and we have to respect that. She knew she wasn’t going to make it, she wouldn’t have if she chained down the Kyuubi and let me seal it, you told me yourself. So she made the decision of saving us instead. So now, we have to live the life she would want us to have, that she let us have. It’s going to be hard, really hard to get there, but you have me. And we need to be there for Naruto. So despite how hard it’s going to be, we’re going to make it through this together alright? That’s what Kushina told me, that we had to keep living, together.”

Unable to say anything, I just looked up at Tousan’s sad smile, only now seeing the tears that built up in the corners of his eyes. Swallowing down my guilt, I allowed a pained smile of my own to grace my lips. “And you have me too you know. I may look only five, but I would be twenty-seven this year. I can handle a lot more then you think, Tousan.” I watched as Tousan looked down at me and smiled a bit wider, still not quite reaching his emotionless eyes as he let out an empty chuckle, only to be chocked by a silent sob.

As much as I needed to break down, to blame myself and drown myself in guilt, Tousan needed someone as much as I did. In my mind, I killed Kaasan. I deserved to feel every ounce of guilt and self hatred that was going to be thrown at me but for now, I had to put on the same show Tousan was. Act like you’re strong and not going to be emotionally scarred the rest of your life, because the people you love need that person. So I did.

“And thank you,” I started as I looked back down at Naruto who sat bundled up in a blanket in Tousan’s arms. “I- It might take me awhile to agree with you but, thank you. I don’t want to let Kaasan down. I want to live a life she’d be proud of.”

And that was when I made a new promise to myself. I was done with the games and jokes. As much as I wished it could be different, this had opened my eyes. Real lives are on the line. This wasn’t some fun story I read in a manga anymore. I had joked with procrastinating and having time- I’d been so naive. That mistake cost Kaasan her life. So no more. Still looking at Naruto, I steeled in my resolve and committed myself to keeping my promise this time.

I would get stronger, strong enough to protect the people that I loved so this wouldn’t happen again. They deserved a better life, and I held every answer on how to fix it. I just had to figure out my next move. No, not just my next move. I had to figure out and plan every move to checkmate, know what pieces I had, where to move them, if I could move them. I had to figure out how to beat the game of fate.

* * *

 

Waking up the next morning felt like trying move a hundred ton rock. Impossible. Both Tousan and myself had fallen asleep in a restless slumber on the couch, having been sat there in high strung silence for hours before our emotional and physical exhaustion got the better of both of us. We were both fresh out of tears, in pain both emotionally and physically, and completely drained of energy and chakra. Overall, it was a recipe for feeling absolutely horrible. Naruto was laying in Tousan’s lap, letting out a shrill cry that brought both Tousan and I out of our light sleep immediately. Looking over at each other briefly, it was like we both knew exactly how we both felt. A mutual unwillingness to live, but knowing we had to.

Getting up first, I forced myself to stand against the screaming muscles in my legs and reached down to take Naruto, bouncing him slightly in an attempt to soothe him. Looking down at Tousan, I saw just how terrible he looked. Hair disheveled, puffy eyes red and swollen, tears staining his cheeks, and a hollowness to his features, although I knew I probably didn't look much better. Sighing slightly, I spoke out in a hoarse voice, “Go get cleaned up, you look horrible.” The jib that was meant to sound carefree just came out strained, but Tousan attempted a smile either way as he nodded. Getting up, he trudged to his room and shut the door where I heard the shower turn on after a few minutes. Now that I had a moment mostly to myself and now that Naruto was falling back asleep, I quickly did a once over of myself.

Every single one of my muscled screamed in sheer agony, my body attempting to give out every few minutes, causing me to have to catch myself on the arm of the couch to try an keep myself from passing out. My head pounded and protested the bright sunlight, and overall, I felt lethargic and drained. Quite honestly I felt like death. It must be from depleting myself of so much chakra yesterday. I can only imagine how Tousan feels.

But also… Scrunching up my face, I focused on that unfamiliar feeling that bubbled in my chest. Something felt… off.

Shaking my head and chalking it up to all the events of the previous day, I made to go make Naruto a bottle when a feeling of vertigo stopped me in my tracks. I found the couch before I fell over, realizing I was still holding Naruto. I sat there disoriented for a few terrifying minutes before my vision swam back to me, finding my balance once again. Fuck, that’s not good. Deciding it safest to stay put until Tousan got back, I resorted to staring out the window. As my eyes swept across the room, they stopped upon seeing something at the door. Three pair of slippers sat by the door, laying side by side, albeit a bit disorganized. Those thoughts I had been trying hard to ignore came rushing at me in a wave that flooded my veins with an ice cold onslaught. We’d only be needing two pair of slippers now. Kaasan was gone.

No, Kaasan was dead.

That all too familiar panic welled inside me as I found myself too weary to fight it off. My breathing picked up and my heart raced, sweat beginning to form at my temple as my pupils dilated. Nausea rolled over me in waves as the previous nights events finally rushed back to the forefront of my mind. Oh god, Kaasan was dead. She was really gone. I’d never see her again. Naruto was without a mother. Tousan had lost his wife. I failed them. I failed Kaasan.

“-ane. Akane!” Tousan shaking my shoulder brought me from my stupor with a jolt of pain as I found myself screaming. What the fuck? Tousan wrapped his arm around me as I shook, panting and heart racing. Shit, I must have had some sort of a panic attack. I looked down to see Tousan had Naruto in his arms, crying but appearing unharmed. Thank god.

Pulling back, I looked up into Tousan’s weary yet worried face. “Sorry, I’m fine now. I’m gonna go get cleaned up.” Before I could be stopped, I got up, ignoring the way I swayed and made my way to the bathroom. Sighing as I closed the door, I leaned on the sink as I looked up at myself in the mirror. I could have almost screamed at the reflection that stared back at me. My eyes were wide with dark bags pulling under them, puffy from all my tears. My greasy hair was tangled and snarled, still unwashed in days from when I refused to leave my room. Was that really only yesterday? It felt more like lifetimes ago.

Deciding I had to start somewhere, I grabbed a pair of scissors and held them up to my head. Taking a deep breath, I gave myself only a seconds pause before plunging them in my waist length hair and snipping. My deep red hair had always resembled Kaasan’s in more then just colour. While mine was admittedly a bit more of a deep red, almost the color of blood, I wore it styled in almost exactly the same way Kaasan did, only mine was longer. Now looking at my hair, as much as I loved it long, I knew there really wasn’t any sense in trying to salvage the rat’s nest that had formed. It was tangled beyond repair, twigs and mud deeply lodged in the frizzed mess.

So I cut it. I cut it until there was really not much left. The sides were no more than an inch in length, only the top wearing a bit longer in length, laying off the one side with it slightly falling over my left eye. Looking at my ruined hair emotionlessly, I turned towards the shower and stripped, not bothering to turn on the knob for hot water. I wanted a cold shower. Something to wake me up, something almost painful.

Rinsing out the few tuffs of hair that were stuck to my head and scrubbing off the dried sweat and grime, I did actually begin to feel minutely better as I reached over and shut off the stream of water. Reaching for a towel, I turned just enough to catch a glimpse of something on my back. Furrowing my brows, I twisted my torso in order to get a glimpse at my back. And then, the world stopped turning. Looking back at me in the mirror, sitting right between my shoulder blades sat a black design that wasn’t quite familiar, but I knew exactly what it was nonetheless.

It was a seal.

All air escaping my lungs, I couldn’t even breathe. Not quite knowing what to do, I wrapped my towel around myself and reached to fling open the door, only to have that feeling of vertigo hit me once again, full force. Except this time, it won. I dropped to my knees and fell my stomach lurch as I dry heaved on the floor, nothing coming up as I hadn’t eaten in over three days. My vision tunneled before it went completely black, feeling myself fall lifelessly to the ground as I lost consciousness. The last thing I heard was the door opening.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry, I also got super depressed reading this. Past me was sadistic.


	5. 10 Years From Now...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time flies, and wounds heal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this one is just fucking full of information and progress. This time skips like 10 years, so be ready for the shortest 10 year recap you've ever seen. Past me was not slowing down for y'all. At least this is slightly less depressing, maybe.

Quite obviously, the hospital was a bit more than crowded on the day after the night of the Kyuubi attack, but that didn’t deter Tousan from abusing his Hokage privileges to get me seen immediately. As it turns out, you shouldn’t go days without eating or drinking water, deplete yourself of chakra, and then have a mental breakdown. Apparently you pass out. But as we quickly discovered, that wasn’t the only reason for my loosing consciousness.

As I was absent of a few articles of clothing when Tousan found me on the bathroom floor, he too had seen the swirling design engraved on my back. In the chaos of my little fainting episode, Tousan had genuinely almost forgotten about the seal until I brought it up myself. After waking up in a hospital bed with an intravenous needle sticking out of my arm, pumping me full of liquids, I was forced to receive a heated lecture from the Naruto holding Tousan that almost put a smile on my face. Well, until his voice cracked and tears welled in his eyes.

“You can’t leave me too, Akane. You can’t.”

After soothing his worries and volunteering to take Naruto for a bit, I watched from my hospital bed as Tousan sank into the hard wooden chair at my bedside, looking completely exhausted now that he realized I wasn’t going to die too. Waiting a beat, I looked down at Naruto’s chubby face before frowning slightly, reaching out to pull his blanket away from his chest to take a glance at the presumed seal resting on his abdomen.

It was blank.

My breathing quicken as I began to panic before stopping, realizing the seal never appeared on his solar plexus until he drew from Kurama’s chakra, almost twelve years from now. So why was mine visible? Letting out a sigh, I leaned back against my scratchy pillow to stare up at the white cieling tiles before finally allowing my thoughts to drift to that night. I didn’t want to think about it, but I needed Tousan to fill in the many blanks of what the fuck actually happened.

“Tousan,” I started, not looking away from the hole I was burning in the ceiling with my gaze. “Why do I have a seal on my back? What- what did Kaasan do?” My voice cracked at her name, but I continued on. It was too late to back out now. “I remember that she asked me to try to chain down Kurama, but I-I don’t really know what happened after I did…”

Minutes past in tense silence until finally, I brought my gaze down to glance at Tousan. He sat, shoulders tense, intense gaze locked straight ahead, looking but not quite seeing. Furrowing my brows in concern, I tried to get his attention. “Tousan?”

Jumping slightly, his gaze found mine for a brief second before he sighed, letting his eyes slide close as he let his head drop with a thunk against the back of the wooden chair. Gone was that strong and stoic Hokage I had seen that night in my bedroom, replaced by a worn and depleted widower. “Honestly? I’m not entirely sure either. I teleported the Kyuubi to the safe house, planning on carrying out the plan exactly how you told me.” Tousan carefully did not look at me as I narrowed my gaze at him. Although apparently he sensed my anger judging by the slight wince, but he carried on as if nothing happened. “But when I got there and saw you, I just knew it wouldn’t be going the way I had planned. Something would defer from how you told me the events were supposed to play out. After you chained him down, Kushina asked me what she thought we should do. I told her I wanted to split Kyuubi’s chakra, half in me and half in Naruto. Konoha will need his power if that masked man is to actually be defeated, it’s the only way. But Naruto is too small, too fragile to hold all of that chakra in him, so I needed to split it in half. I told her that and… she just smiled at me. I was so confused. And then, she was hugging me, kissing me like she was saying goodbye.”

I let the silence flood the room, giving Tousan the few minutes he needed to collect himself as I let it all settle in. It was exactly like it had been in the original story, only I was holding Kurama down and not Kaasan. So where did it get so fucked up?

Finally picking up his head, Tousan looked straight at me, emotion swirling behind his blue eyes. “Before I knew it, she’d turned around and performed the Dead Demon Consuming Seal, splitting the nine-tails chakra in half. I couldn’t even stop her once she started, it was too late. I saw her use the Eight Trigrams Sealing Style to seal half the chakra into Naruto but… she must have sealed the other half into you. There’s no other way.”

I looked blankly into Tousan’s eyes that were the twin pair of my own. “What?”

Sighing yet again, Tousan rubbed his hand down his face as if attempting to rub off his weariness. “I don’t know why she did it, but she must have sealed half of the Kyuubi’s chakra in Naruto, and then half in you. She must have realized how much we’d need Kurama’s power and separated his Yin and Yang like I was going to, splitting up his chakra into the only two remaining people alive with Uzumaki blood. Although…”

Swallowing the sudden lump in my throat, I fought off the rising feeling of dread. Half of the Kyuubi was inside me. I had either the Yin or Yang chakra of the nine-tailed beast sealed inside me.

I was a jinchuriki.

Fuck.

Turning my attention back to Tousan, I realized I had stopped listening to him unintentionally, drowned in my anxiety over my sudden newfound title. “Um, sorry. What?” I croaked out, clearing my voice as I felt my throat constrict. This was not good.

Apparently sensing my inner devastation, Tousan stood and sat on the edge of my hospital bed, not doing anything except sitting there. A few seconds past until I felt myself release the breath I didn’t know I was holding, my shoulder drop with a tension I hadn’t noticed. My eyes drifted down to lay on Naruto’s face, ever peaceful look as he slept on. Just Tousan’s presence managed to calm me down, made me feel like I wasn’t alone. Not only because he was my dad, but because he was the only one in this world that knew the truth. Even Inoichi who had delved inside my head was blissfully unaware. While still suspicious, Tousan wrote it off as me practicing genjutsu or something of the sort, trying to create false memories. I don’t know, I still don’t follow this universe’s logic.

After seeing me relax, Tousan repeated himself. “I was saying that the seal she used needed a key, but I didn’t see her create one. So if she knew we would one day need Kyuubi’s power to defeat the man, she must have hidden a key somewhere. I just don’t know where. Or how. The seal will weaken over time, but she should have made a key that would either strengthen or get rid of the seal. It doesn’t make sense. And the only way your seal would have already appeared would be if you had already accessed the Kyuubi’s chakra, but that doesn’t make sense either. Not only that, but you and Naruto would have no way of protecting yourself from Kurama once sealed in you. When he was inside Kushina, she kept him restrained, but you’d have no way of doing that.”

The confusion that settled in on Tousan’s face was almost a relief. I’d only seen him looking exhausted and devastated since yesterday, so the distraction I unwillingly gave him put some of my own worry to rest. “In the original story, you and Kaasan both sealed in the rest of your chakra into his seal, allowing Kaasan to keep him restrained throughout that-“

And then it hit me. My mouth fell open and eyes widened slightly. That feeling from earlier. That strange, familiar yet foreign feeling. It wasn’t the Kyuubi’s chakra I had been feeling, something I’d assumed upon first discovering I was a jinchuriki. It was Kaasan’s chakra.

“I can feel it. I can feel her chakra…”

At my declaration, it was as if the illusion was broken. We weren’t discussing the fucking weather, we were talking about Kaasan’s death. Silence that was becoming all too common fell over us yet again, both lost in our own thoughts.

I had fucked up so bad. I had failed to save Kaasan, was currently laying in a hospital bed after passing out, and fucked up the story line so much that I had somehow ended up with the Kyuubi half sealed within me. Everything was going to change. Literally everything. I have absolutely no way of predicting the future anymore, because I’ve just created one shit storm of a domino effect. My little ripple became a god damn tsunami already. If the butterfly theory is right, I’ve just created one hell of a tornado.

* * *

 

Two days later found us back at home, Tousan and I both in our own rooms. Naruto was currently bouncing on my hip, wailing as I struggled to slip on my other black boot. My normal blue long sleeve, dark green capris, and standard blue sandals were swapped for a long sleeve hanging black dress that fell to just above my knees, short black boots to match. My red hair was slicked back on the sides, the top flipped to the left, strands falling in front of my eye. Finally struggling on my other shoe, I stood up straight, staring at my reflection as Naruto’s cries quieted down slowly.

Good. Now I just have to dress Naruto for the funeral.

Digging through the pile of baby clothes that Kaasan had gone out and bought for Naruto, I pulled out the only black article in the pile. Lifting it up, I immediately frowned and began looking for something else. Upon finding nothing, I sighed and turned my gaze back to the offending article. It must have been a gift from Mikoto judging by the giant, obnoxious Uchiha fan adorning the back of the onesie.

Minutes past until I had finally gotten all of Naruto’s fragile, almost immobile limbs into the clothing. Grabbing his little blanket, I wrapped him in snuggly as he began to drift off once more, apparently tiring himself out by pointlessly crying. Readjusting him to lay more securely in my arms, I walked over and knocked on Tousan’s door.

“We’re gonna be late.”

Not many words had been exchanged that morning, especially when compared to the previous couple of days. It seemed we both had the same idea: focus on the issue of the Kyuubi sealing, ignore the fact that Kaasan was dead. It had worked well, the distraction pressing enough that we were able to pass an entire two days of just discussing possibilities. Where the key might be, if there is one, sealing techniques to possibly strengthen the Eight Trigrams if needed, what to do about the Kyuubi inside me, how it might be beneficial, when the fuck I had accessed his chakra already, and retelling the original plot in more depth, albeit only telling about the parts concerning the Kyuubi being sealed. I would explain everything to Tousan, tell him everything from the original plot. But not now. For now, we had to focus on the current issue.

We’d come up with quite a few theories, all needing to be tested. We thought it best to theorize for a few days and then put some to test after today. After the funeral. So when the day finally came, we found ourselves with nothing to distract ourselves, having to face reality once more.

Jiraiya had visited once, the day I passed out after we had gotten back from the hospital. He was waiting at our front door when we walked up. Tousan and him had stared at each other for a few seconds before Jiraiya had just hugged him. I had no idea what to do as I just watched as Tousan hugged him back just as tightly. There was nothing that could be said to make the pain go away, to make it all better, and I figured that Jiraiya knew that. Actions speak louder than words.

After almost a whole minute, they finally stepped back as I was able to see tears in both of their eyes. Jiraiya had come to love Kushina like his own daughter, much like how he viewed Minato as his son. He had lost someone in the same way Tousan and I had. Looking down, Jiraiya spared me a pained look as he reached out his hand, gently ruffling my hair before looking back to Tousan.

“I’m sorry. If I’d known, I would have co-“

“Stop.” Tousan’s looked right at Jiraiya, anger clearly lingering in his gaze. “Don’t you dare start to blame yourself. If you’re at fault, then I most certainly am as well. We didn’t kill her. That masked man is to blame, not any one of us.”

I didn’t miss the way Tousan’s gaze briefly fell down to meet mine as he said that.

After that, Tousan brought Jiraiya inside to try and explain a bit of just what had happened that day as no one knew anything except the Kyuubi was released, only to be sealed back again by the recently departed Kushina Uzumaki. Not even a minute after going inside with Jiraiya was there a knock at the door, getting up myself to check who was showing up at the Hokage’s door unannounced and leaving Tousan and Jiraiya conversing in crestfallen tones. Feeling a familiar sense of chakra behind the door, I frowned in thought as my mind raced to match the chakra signature to a face.

Opening the door revealed Kakashi, hands in his pockets, shoulder relaxed, posture hunched, looking like the picture of forced casualness. His eyes flickered down and landed on me, his visible eye widening a fraction of an inch, the only sign he was surprised to find me answering the door.

“Maa, Akane-san… Um, nice hair?”

Any other time, I would have called him out on such awkwardness from the usually calm and collected shinobi, but I couldn’t even find it in me to smile at the chip in his mask. Looking down at the floor, I opened the door wider and stepped aside. “Tousan’s in the living room with Jiraiya.” I couldn’t even find it in me to call him Pervy Sage.

“Ah, okay. Thanks.”

Most would take such flippant, oblivious nature as offensive and insensitive, but I knew he was hurt just like the rest of us. He was in pain from loosing Kaasan, but also weighted with needing to try to be there for Tousan, even though he was infinitely bad with consoling anyone. Walking past with silent steps, I didn’t notice he’d paused until I had closed the door, turning around to find the man looking back at me with an unreadable look. With only one eye showing, it was nearly impossible to know what he was thinking.

I was about to dismiss myself when he finally spoke up. “I’m sorry for… for your loss.” It was then that I was able to decipher what I’d seen in his eye. Empathy.

Sparing him an emotionless smile that most likely appeared more like a grimace, I uttered a quick, “Thank you, but I wasn’t the only one who lost someone, Kakashi-san.” before making a quick exit. I wanted to let him know that he didn’t need to hold in his pain, didn’t need to swallow his emotions to put on a strong front for others, but I couldn’t get out the words at the lump that formed in my throat at his words.

He’d said ‘I’m sorry for your loss’, but to my ears it only sounded like ‘you failed’.

I’d gone to my room after that, letting Tousan talk to Jiraiya and Kakashi without me there. It sounds stupid since I’m his daughter, but it just felt like I’d be intruding on their moment. So instead, I jumped under the covers and curled up, letting the silence of my room fill my ears, my thoughts unwillingly relenting to being lost in my failure. A few hours later when Tousan knocked on my door, I opened it to find an almost neutral expression on his face, perhaps a bit lighter then it had been only that morning. Not willing to ruin Tousan’s few sparing moments of not being overwhelmed by pain, I pretended like I hadn’t just suffered yet another panic attack in the cold, dark depths of my room, alone.

That was two days ago. I cleared my thoughts of the past few days as I waited patiently for Tousan. A few seconds later and the door opened, Tousan stepping out with an unreadable expression on his face. He himself had traded his Hokage robes for a long black sleeve shirt and a simple pair of black pants that ended mid-calf, exposing the wrappings underneath, all tied together with black standard shinobi sandals. His hitai-ate sat in place, hair as unruly as always.

“Ready?”

There were no words that could be said to say how either of us were feeling, to ease either of our pain, so we forwent words. Tousan nodded, and then we were off. I cradled the sleeping Naruto as we made our way through the half destroyed village. Sarutobi had been attempting to handle all the affairs since the attack and trying to orchestrate the clean up, but it was more than a little difficult. People had died, the village was in ruins, they were confused, and their Hokage was busy mourning. His very first appearance since that night was now, at the funeral.

Walking into the crowd, all eyes were suddenly on us. The crowd parted as Tousan and I walked towards the front, only now seeing what people were gathering around. Framed pictures hung up, headshots of the fallen shinobi who died protecting Konoha from the Kyuubi. Among the frames I saw two shinobi’s pictures placed right next to each other, a man and a woman, adorning familiar features that I recognised. Iruka’s parents. Eyes roaming further, they suddenly stopped on one. Kaasan’s face smiled back at me, placed in the middle of the row, raised above the rest. At the front, I stopped and took my place among the masses. But Tousan didn’t.

Confused, but too overwhelmed with guilt and devastation to speak up, I watched along with every other person as Tousan took his place in front of the crowd, standing right next to Sarutobi. Even despite the deafening silence, I couldn’t hear the few words they exchanged before Sarutobi began speaking.

It was your typical speech you’d give at a tragedy the scale of this. How brave everyone was, how loved they were and that they’d be missed, what a great and unavoidable tragedy it was, and so on. Honestly, his words didn’t even reach me. I was still where I was when I’d first walked in. Lost in Kaasan’s picture. It was one thing subconsciously knowing she was dead and being able to push off thinking about it, but it was a whole other thing standing amongst Konoha shinobi at her funeral, hearing how she upheld her duties until the very end of her life.

I didn’t notice when Jiraiya came to stand next to me, Kakashi right along beside him. I steeled my emotion the same way Kaasan withheld the Kyuubi. Behind bars, locked away. I couldn’t break down, not now. No, not standing in a crowd full of people who had lost loved ones because I couldn’t stop it.

Think about this for a minute: You happen to overhear two people plotting the murder of the Feudal Lord that will happen in three days. You have two options. Option one is going to the authorities and telling them this. The catch is that they'll question how you know or if you're even telling the truth and their number one suspect is the person who knew about the murder, you. People don't just happen to overhear a murder plot for an important person such as a Feudal Lord, so there is only a slim chance they'll believe you. Realistically, they'll write you off as crazy, no one will believe you.

Option two is to say nothing. You go on your way knowing someone is going to get murdered but you don't say anything. Not only does he die, but the murderer ended up going on a killing spree and murdering a dozen others. Doesn't that make you just as bad as the murderer? Does it make you even worse? You could have possibly prevented the murder, stopped countless deaths but you never said anything.

You murdered him. You murdered all of them

I murdered Kaasan. Eyes darting to the other frames, I felt the steel ball in my gut drop. No, I murdered all of them.

Panic gripping hold tight, I clenched my jaw, consumed entirely with my spiralling thoughts. Only a slight movement from the bundle in my arms ripped my attention away from the feeling that was consuming me as my eyes darted down to Naruto’s, his eyes open and staring right back at me. They were a lot like Kaasan’s. No, not the colour. That came straight from the Namikaze genes. But their round expressiveness, kindness and honesty shining through like a beacon. They were the eyes of someone who just wanted to love and be loved. They were Kaasan’s eyes.

A sudden silence brought my attention to the front where Sarutobi was nodding at Tousan. Taking a step forwards, Tousan glanced over the crowd before speaking.

“I’m sure many of you are confused. Hurt. Frustrated. Angered even. On this day of mourning our fellow leaf ninja, citizen’s of Konoha, our friends and families, we allow ourselves a day to pull off our mask and just feel for one day. To shed tears for the smiles you won’t get to share. To get angry about all the thing you won’t get to say. To smile at the memories you won’t get to laugh together about anymore. Today is a day of accepting the agony of loosing someone, to let out everything you’ve pent up and just let yourself break down because when tomorrow comes, you have to start the even more defeating task of moving on. No matter how strong the feeling, the feeling of not wanting to continue on until tomorrow, you have to persevere. Tomorrow will bring a better day, it will get easier, and the pain will start to fade. Your suffering friends and family will need you to be strong, to try and pick up the broken pieces of you life and start putting them back together. It’s a task I will have to share with you all.”

Tousan spared a look back at the hanging framed picture that sat in the middle of the others before turning back around and continuing, a slight catch in his voice that wasn’t there before.

“My wife, the mother of my children, died the night of the Kyuubi attack. It’s a night that I’m sure everyone here has questions about. I’m sorry that I haven’t been the Hokage that I am supposed to be, that I haven’t been here for the people of Konoha. There’s no excuse for abandoning the village when it needed me most, so please allow me to apologise with an explanation that is long overdue. That night of October 10th, my son Naruto was born, weakening the seal that kept the nine-tailed beast sealed inside Kushina. Despite our precautions, an enemy shinobi infiltrated and released the nine-tailed beast, taking control over him. Even after taking control back and after the enemy nin retreated, I needed to be able to seal the demon back. I was forced to lead the Kyuubi back to Kushina where she took it upon herself to split the Kyuubi’s chakra, sealing half of the chakra into both of my children.”

Despite the room already being silent, it was as if a hush fell over the room, the tension almost tangible as I felt every eye in the room fall onto me. My own gaze stayed firmly on Tousan who stared back at me in what felt like determination. He had to tell them, give them the closure they needed.

“The justu she used inevitably caused her death. She gave her life to protect Konoha until her last breath. I owe her not only my happiness, but my life as well. While I mourn her, I realize I have abandoned my village in doing so. Truly, I am sorry, but that will not happen anymore. I’m your Hokage, and that is how I shall act.”

Figuring that was the end of his speech, I let my eyes stray down to the gray floor, adjusting my grip on Naruto as I did. I could still feel the weight of everyone’s gaze on me. I was just allowing my thoughts to wander when Tousan’s voice cut through the air yet again.

“I would like to address this before it becomes a problem, something that I believe should be understood without me having to say. My children, Akane and Naruto, are not the enemies.”

My eyes shot up and I was met with Tousan’s firm gaze being directed at the crowd.

“They are not the demon that attacked this village, nor do they share any responsibility of any of the events that occurred. If anything, they saved this village as much as Kushina. They became the containers for the beast that terrorised Konoha. I have seen for myself that this is not an easy position to be placed in, especially being so young. I understand your anger and hatred for the nine-tailed beast, but that demon is not my children, and I hope you do understand that. The blame is placed on our enemy-nin that released the Kyuubi. Know that I will personally be taking steps to locate and identify this shinobi, to ensure nothing like this will ever happen again to our village. The will of fire burns deep in every one of us, let us not confuse this passion for misdirected anger.”

Allowing a few seconds to give his words a moment to weigh on everyone’s mind, Tousan nodded slightly.

“Now let us mourn and honour our fallen who gave their life to protect this village, to protect Konoha.”

After the conclusion of the funeral, I found myself, along with many others, lingering. I wanted to leave, to run as far as my legs would take me, to be alone. But I couldn’t. I had Naruto to take care of and I had to make sure Tousan was okay after a speech like that. As Naruto began to stir, I held him up to my shoulder and held his head, swaying back in forth in a soothing motion.

“Do you want me to take him?”

I looked up to where Jiraiya stood next to me, no hint of the usual amusement found in his expression. Nodding, I held Naruto out of him, not letting go until the sage had a good grip on him, supporting his fragile neck. “Thanks Pervy Sage.” The nickname held no humour, more of a hollow attempt of normalcy that fell flat. Despite that, he gave me a small smile and spared an endearing, “Sure kid.”

“I’m gonna go find Tousan.” I left without waiting for a response, making my way through the throngs of the sullen, even crying shinobi as I finally found Tousan. He seemed deep in conversation with Sarutobi, Kakashi flanking his side. Ignoring the sudden feeling welling up inside me, I turned and walked right out of the crowd, making my way down the street. Tousan would be okay. He had Kakashi there. That’s good.

I wasn’t sure how long I walked for, but once I’d pulled myself from my thoughts, I suddenly found myself in a large open area surrounded by Konoha’s famous woods, a few objects sticking out of the ground but one noticeably large that was sitting where it drew my attention. The oddly shaped stone towered over its few surroundings, only outdone by the trees that sat yards away at the edge of the clearing. Walking up to it, I allowed my fingers to run along the carefully carved indents that adorned the surface. Pulling back my hand, I let out a shuddering breath as I took in the Memorial Stone in its entirety.

It had yet to have the Kyuubi victims names added to it’s morbid collection, but yet somehow I still was drawn here.

My eyes traced over every name until my vision blurred. Shocked, I brought my hand up to my face to find my cheeks damp. My breath hitched as I inhaled, and then I just began sobbing. Tears poured down my face in streams as I choked on my sobs. Wanting nothing more than to disappear, I sank to the ground and crouched, tucking my head to rest on my knees that were drawn up to my chest, my arms hugging my legs. My once tamed hair now sticking out in tuffs as I huddled my face further into myself. The tears and wails refused to stop, all my built up pain escaping me in the form of a break down.

The emotions I had spent the past few days locked behind bars were released all at once like a dam that was suddenly broken open. It was just like Tousan said. I had today to feel miserable, to feel the guilt and pain because tomorrow? Tomorrow I moved forwards. I had to become strong enough to protect the people I had left, I needed to work hard and learn from this devastating failure. The game had just taken a turn for the worst, the rules had changed and I had no idea what move to play next. But I had to bend the rules back, had to keep playing the game to salvage the pieces I still had. The board may have changed, but the game wasn’t over.

But that was all for tomorrow. Today I got to take off my mask and be human. I was at rock bottom, so I could only go up from here.

I had no idea how long I crouched there, balling my eyes out, letting out pained cries that somewhere along the line turned into screams. The next thing I knew I was sitting there, still in my curled up ball but completely out of tears, my throat sore and dry. I sat there silently, my chin resting over my knees as I peered up at the looming stone. I had no idea what kind of face I was wearing, but if I had to guess, I’m sure it would just be empty, exhausted, resigned. Given up.

The sun was starting to set, all unknown to me, when I saw a familiar looking shadow starting to come into my line of view. Without turning around, I knew exactly who it was. Unconcerned, I stayed unmoving as the figure came and crouched down right next to me, copying my stance. The silence stretched around us as we both sat there, staring up at the foreboding piece of rock.

“You know,” Tousan began, still not breaking his gaze away from the stone. “I don’t think you’ve been being very honest with me.”

My eyebrows drawing together, I glanced over to peer at Tousan who was wearing a curious expression, one I couldn’t quite understand. “I would ask you how you were doing and you’d say ‘better’ or ‘fine’. I never believed you, but I let you get away with it because I was doing the same thing. I don’t want to do that anymore.”

I could only watch on as Tousan smiled, a real genuine smile, albeit a small soft one, before asking, “So let’s be honest with each other from now on, okay?” Standing up, Tousan extended his hand for me. Without missing a beat, I reached up for his hand as he pulled me to my feet where I immediately lunged at him. Catching me with a quiet, “Oof!”, I wrapped my arms around his waist. Not a second later I felt him hug me back.

It wasn’t much, but with just that hug, I felt a small weight being lifted off my chest. Deep down, I’d been terrified that Tousan might secretly blame me, might secretly hate me for what I did. But he didn’t. For a quick moment, I was thrown back at how much Minato had come to mean to me. After dying and being reincarnated, I had been in such denial, been so lost. But Tousan and Kaasan were always there. They went from being Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, the characters from Naruto to Tousan and Kaasan, my parents. And now that Kaasan was gone, Minato was all I had. He was family. He was Tousan.

“C’mon. Let’s go home, alright?”

Nodding, I simply just gave in as I felt myself being lifted up, held by a pair of strong arms. I stayed there, my head resting against Tousan’s shoulder as he carried me through the woods and right through the thinning streets of Konoha at sunset. At some point, I felt my exhaustion take hold as I fought to keep my eyes open. I was still being carried through the village streets as I finally felt myself slipping away from consciousness and towards the throngs of sleep. Just before I let myself succumb to the darkness, I mumbled sleepily, only hoping he heard me before I had fallen fast asleep in his arms.

“I love you Tousan.”

* * *

 

Surprisingly, the next few years flew by in a blur. While the months after the Kyuubi attack dragged on, lost in a fog of trying to grieve, time eventually began to pick up speed. Mood slowly improving, both Tousan and I leaned on each other to keep on moving forward until we could finally stand on our own feet again. I started up my practice with Itachi again, all too similar to how it had been before, although he did seem to talk just a bit more then previously. Then I started at the Academy, finding Itachi in my class. At first I had been wary, but seeing as how he was always sitting alone and ignoring the rest of his peers, I eventually gave in and approached him. While rocky at first, it seemed that our clashing personalities made for good friends, in and out of being classmates.

On top of that, Tousan and I put our heads together and figured out my problem with ninjutsu. While we had just sort of expected an affinity of wind or water or fire given my parents, it turns out that was completely wrong. Testing my affinity, we learned by the wrinkled up paper in my hand that mine was lightening of all things. How, we aren’t quite sure, but it was. Given that, Tousan practically forced the ex-ANBU member, Kakashi to teach me some ninjutsu. After refusing the first four times, he finally relented and said he’d give me two weeks to prove I wasn’t a waste of time. Given my history of ninjutsu, it wasn’t looking promising, but I was very wrong. Apparently, learning how to properly control and use chakra for ninjutsu was much easier when practicing using your chakra’s latent element.

Gaining reluctant approval from Kakashi, he promised to tech me a few things when he wasn’t busy on missions. So really, that just meant whenever he showed up. Usually only like, once a month or less.

As for my genjutsu, it was still tragic. It had confused me at first as the chakra that had been sealed in me was Kurama’s Yin chakra, focusing on creating something out of nothing. It was great for genjutsu, the Uchiha clan leaning more towards Yin release, and even the Nara clan for their shadow kekkei genkai. So when I was still such shit at it, Tousan explained that right now, the Kyuubi was an individual being locked away from my own, despite living inside me. I was simply a container for his chakra, not using it and tapping into it. Therefore, Tousan figured I was mostly likely more of a Yang release myself.

On top of that, we decided to just keep an eye on the seal for now, avoiding any interactions with Kurama unless necessary. It could wait until I had gotten a bit stronger before trying to tame him and be able to tap into any chakra. While we had searched the grounds of the fight for any potential ‘key’, none could be found. Eventually, we gave up, figuring she never made one before her death.

As the years past with all my training with Itachi the child prodigy, Kakashi the infamous ex-ANBU Copy-nin, and none other than Tousan Konoha’s Yellow Flash himself, it wasn’t much of a surprise when I had taken the test to become a genin at age 10 and passed. What had surprised me was my team. Of course, I knew that while some family’s held a grudge against me, hating me for harbouring the nine-tailed demon, some family’s wanted to use me to get closer to the Hokage and boost their worth. So it should have been of no surprise when I was landed with a 12 year old Hyuuga kid who I didn’t recognise. The shocking part was the face of Iruka Umino on my team. Apparently, he’d gone with his team to the Chunin exams and was the only one who didn’t pass, so he was placed on a new genin team at age 15. Mine.

So Kenji (the Hyuuga), Iruka and I made up my genin team, Team 11. Our joinin sensei was someone I didn’t recognise, but was found to be Kai Nara, a cousin of Shikaku’s apparently. Over the course of that year, I surprisingly became quite close with both of my teammates, even getting along with my sensei. Kenji and I had a friendly rivalry between us, always attempting to one up each other despite him almost always winning, although we stayed level headed on missions. My friendship with Iruka was much more normal. It was difficult at first, knowing that I had known his parents were going to die and I had been unable to prevent it, but I had long since accepted I wasn’t at fault for the incident. I may have been able to save more than I had, but I realized years ago that Tobi’s actions were no fault of my own. So eventually, I found myself relaxing around the Umino, meeting up with him even outside of training and missions. He was my first genuine friend.

And then there was Kai sensei. He was just as lazy as every other Nara, choosing to teach with few words and even fewer actions. While it had been frustrating at first, I quickly learned to adapt to this style of teaching. I’d been so used to Tousan’s doting syle of teaching, Kakashi’s all actions and learning by example, and then Itachi’s all hands on and long winded explanations that I hadn’t known how to react to such an independent teaching style. But I learned. I began to learn from my own failures, figuring out the problem and correcting it through my own trial and error. It allowed me to become a quick thinker, able to solve my own problems without others simply telling me the answers.

Honestly, Kai sensei taught me an invaluable asset for being a good shinobi.

After a year with these people, our time as a team came to an end as we made our way to the Village Hidden by Mist, Kirigakure. Of course, it was right after the whole kidnapping Rin and just after changing their brutal Academy rules that have given them their infamous title of Village of the Bloody Mist, but Kai sensei said we could go if we wanted to.

So we did.

Apparently they were trying to put on a good face as we had somehow pushed through the three trials of the exams with little injury or defeat, granting us all with Chunin titles. Iruka at age 16, Kenji at age 13, and me at age 11 all became Chunin. Overall, I was quite impressed with my improvement, although it was to be expected with teachings from the Forth Hokage, the child prodigy Itachi, Konoha’s future strongest ninja Kakashi, and genius strategist Kai Nara. Not only that, but I had a Hyuuga as my sparring partner and rival. I was probably one of the most trained shinobi of my age group, causing me to excel despite my lack of natural talent or really talent in general.

When Itachi joined ANBU that year, I unexpectantly began to see him more, only seeing him previously once every few months. I now saw him at the mission’s desk, on guard duty when I visited Tousan in his office as I recognized the Weasel mask as his, and even in passing on the streets. On occasion, I would even go seek him out either for training or just to talk. While he’d always try to weasel his way out of the latter, no pun intended, he always reluctantly gave in at the promise of my paying for lunch.

Kenji and I saw each other less, both busy on our own missions, but we still held that ridiculous rivalry. While surpassing such childish actions, we kept up such a charade for the nostalgia, old habits dying hard. On our similar free days, we’d go out and book a training ground, taking turns landing blows until their was either a victor or we gave up and called a draw. Our currently score was Kenji-26 and Me-22, so I was adamant about sparring every opportunity we got until I caught up.

I would still hang out with Iruka who was busy with trying to get a job at the Academy, Kenji even joining us once in awhile. No matter how much time passed with us not seeing each other, it was like no time had passed at all, still remaining close despite the limited time we had. Iruka was quite honestly my best friend, an irreplaceable person who was always there for me.

Kai sensei, or senpai now, I would see roaming the streets lethargically. He’d never approach me, but I always made an effort to go and ask how he was doing. It wasn’t that he didn’t care or was trying to get rid of me, it was just his personality. It was too troublesome. So on occasion, I would invite myself over to the Nara clan complex to play shogi with my old teacher. Of course, I lost miserably every time, but the time I’d get to spend with him was nice despite the overwhelming loss. This incredible intellect was a welcome change from spending so much time with little Naruto.

Tousan stayed very busy with being the Hokage, so I usually only saw him at night or when I’d visit during the day. Whenever I was in Konoha, I’d try to take him out for lunch, but sometimes he was just too busy to spare the time. At first I’d been pretty upset, not ever spending time with Tousan, but I realized just how important of a person he is. How important his job is. So I just decided to try and make as much time as possible to see him, to try and make his long days a little better. My efforts were always rewarded with Tousan’s big smile and a hug, so it was worth it. We had both healed from the wounds left by Kaasan’s death, but most certainly not forgetting. The open wound had healed overtime into a scar, ever-present and yet only painful on the really hard days.

Given how much Tousan worked, I was left to care for Naruto quite a bit. He would actually go with either Jiraiya or Fugaku and Mikoto when Tousan and I were both busy, so he was always cared for. I had been afraid of Naruto growing up to be a completely different person given the amount that I’d changed, but it appeared my fears were unwarranted. He was just as loud and obnoxious as he had been in the original story, albeit with much less inner turmoil. Even as a six year old, it was obvious he would still be the same quirky Naruto.

Jiraiya stayed in the village for a couple months before disappearing for just as long. He apparently preferred long missions with long breaks in between, so it was of no shock when he’d be gone for six months, only to randomly reappear for six more. He seemed much more happy in this life than compared to the original, unburdened by the loss of his kohal, his apprentice, his faux son.

Kakashi was, well, Kakashi. He had long since retired from ANBU, now on his streak of failing genin teams as a reckless jonin. While still pretty broken, he seemed more alive. Tousan’s survival had made such an impact, Kakashi having someone alive who loved him. Had someone who was proof that not everyone around him died. He still trained me in jutsu’s, and we even developed an odd sort of friendship. Well, maybe friendship wasn’t the word for it. Basically, he’d make fun of me and I’d insult him back until it appeared we were more like enemies then friends. But there was never any spite between us, just a bit of playful poking fun. He’d still wipe the floor with me whenever we sparred, and he most certainly didn’t let me take my defeat in silence.

I think the biggest difference in the storyline, save for Minato’s survival, was the absence of the Uchiha massacre. I have no idea how it happened to be honest. I know that the villages distrust stemmed from that night of the Kyuubi, thinking them to be at some fault, but I suppose since Tousan was there to explain what happened, perhaps that distrust stayed at bay. Perhaps, while the Uchiha’s still felt repressed and under appreciated, they felt no drive to do anything as damning such as taking over the village since they were still respected and trusted. At least I hope so, because I think everyone could live without that travesty. Plus, it would help a lot come the time to control the tailed beasts. Either way, while I still stay a bit wary of any underlying tensions, as of yet, there has been no massacre. Honestly, it’s just further proof of how much I’ve already fucked with.

Consequently, while avoiding the coup de tat, it seemed like that sparked a chain reaction of its own, the biggest change being the current status of Shisui Uchiha. Alive. I myself was completely shocked when I saw him walking around after the time for the massacre had passed. I just stood there gawking at him until Itachi leaned over and slapped me on the back of the head. I suppose since he wasn’t needed to spy on his own clan, he was saved form all the events that followed, including everything with Danzo. I was unsure how to feel about that at first, but then realized I was just glad he was alive. He was one of the deaths I felt was entirely unfair, someone who never needed to die in the first place. So sparing the Uchiha a smile and a wave, politely ignoring his confused wave in return, I continued on walking through the compound with Itachi. Reflecting, that would mean Itachi wouldn’t activate his Mangekyo Sharingan. Well, that was probably for the best too.

I still visited the Memorial Stone, Kaasan’s name carved into the rock just as the other victims of that night had. Whenever I had found myself returning from a mission or even with a bit of downtime, I’d go and visit the stone. It was almost ritualistic. On top of that, I had starting learning how to control Kurama with the help of Tousan. It was only verbal lessons at first, but I soon began putting it into practice. My lessons on fuinjutsu from Kaasan along with everything that Tousan had been taught by her had put us on the right track.

I had made my first attempt at contact with him when I was 15. Tousan took me out to the farthest training ground and had me sit cross-legged on the grass, him standing watch over me. It really wasn’t easy to be honest. Trying to feel inside yourself for this invisible string of chakra and then following it back was almost impossible. But eventually, I found just the wispy end of that string and grabbed hold like a lifeline, letting it lead me all the way back, my stomach dropping as I got closer and closer to that overwhelming power. It felt like walking towards the pits of hell, the air getting hotter and more tangible with the feeling of absolute control and fear. It made me want to turn right around and just run in the opposite direction, but I kept going, nearing the origin of that feeling that had lingered in me, untouched, for so many years.

And then, my mind dove straight down, finally reaching the end of that string. I was suddenly lost in a dark room, no light shining anywhere. I was crippled with the usbearacle urge to just run, the overwhelming sense of dread that I couldn’t even place. That’s when I realized the cause of my feeling. The pure killing intent made my stomach lurch.

The sound of shifting metal drew my attention to the depth of darkness in front of me. Cautiously and against my better judgement, I stepped forward, my footfalls echoing in what sounded to be a large open room. Suddenly, scones lit up on the stone wall all around me, finally allowing me to see the enormous room and dark stone walls that boxed me in. There was no door, only a long stretch of room that reached almost the the end of my vision. The room was completely empty, save for the blazing nine-tailed fox demon that lay right in the middle. On his stomach, his limbs were all pulled out to the side, chains wrapped around each appendage, his abdomen, his neck, and every one of his tails. My eyes roamed over his form, frozen with shock and fear, before landing on his face. His eyes burned right back into mine.

And then, my fear was suddenly forgotten. My eyes locked onto his, and suddenly, I was angry. No, I was fucking pissed. This piece of shit demon, fucking Kurama, was the reason Kaasan was dead. While he obviously didn’t release himself, he was more then capable than making it much easier to be sealed back, but instead he fought and tried to slaughter us even after being released from Tobi’s control.

Heart pounding, blood rushing, I saw red. And then, my mouth opened without my permission. “You son of a fucking bitch.”

Now, perhaps swearing at a literal demon and calling him a son of a bitch is not the smartest thing to do, but my rage knows no bounds. It took a whole ten seconds of the Kyuubi’s blank eyes on my own rage fuelled ones before I heard a loud, booming noise reverberate throughout the enormous room. Confused momentarily, I realized the noise was coming from Kurama. He was laughing.

Completely bemused, I just stood there as Kurama just laughed, finally stopping almost a full minute later. Abruptly, he went harsh yet again. “Watch who you’re talking to kit.” He spat the nickname with a venom I’d never experienced, almost enough to wipe my rage clear from my mind. Almost. Frowning, my fists clenched at my sides.

“Oh I know exactly who I’m talking to. I’m talking to the asshole who’s the reason my mother is dead. So yeah, I can call you a son of a bitch. What are you going to do about it?” Never. Ever. Ever antagonize a fucking demon that lived inside you. Narrowing his orange eyes that burned with spite, Kurama picked up his head, the chain around his neck groaning with his strength.

“Don’t push me. These chains won’t last forever, they weaken by the day as Kushina’s chakra is worn as time goes by. It’s only a matter of time until I’m able to free myself, and you don’t want to be my enemy when that time comes.” Finally, the chains won and dragged his head back down to the stone floor with a great rumble.

The fear that struck right through me surprised me. I knew what he was saying was true, but it hadn’t really hit until he allowed that threat to linger. Fuck, I’m an idiot. Still, I can’t show weakness to him. I can’t allow him to see the fear that threatened to now overwhelm me. Taking a chapter out of the Uchiha way, I raised my chin, straighten my posture, and reigned in my emotions. “Well then, I suppose I’ll just have to secure you myself won’t I?”

A beat of silence past before Kurama’s lips drew back in a sneer, sharp teeth baring in an unspoken threat. “I don’t know whether you’re bravely stupid, or stupidly brave. Either way, I suppose it will be interesting to see what you do. Are you strong enough to handle my chakra? To control me the way your mother did?” He didn’t say it, but he didn’t need to. I heard the unspoken doubtful.

Unrelenting, I felt my own lips curl back in a sneer, a sign that I wouldn’t be the one controlled by him, I would fight back. “I suppose it will be interesting to find out, won’t it?”

And then, it felt as if my brain was clearing, like i was starting to wake up from a deep sleep. I tried to cling to the scene in front of me, I still had so much to ask, to say, but it was a fruitless endeavour. I was being pulled from my minds depths and back into reality as I started to feeling strong hands resting on my small shoulders. Just as the dark stone room was fading, I heard the booming voice surround me once more. “I must say, I’m intrigued. Until next time, kit.” And then, my eyes were shooting open and I leapt to my feet, hand automatically flying to my hip pouch and whipping out a kunai as I crouched down into an action ready stance. It was only when I felt a presence at my back that I turned sharply and let the kunai fly through the air. I watched in shock as I saw Tousan dodge the flying weapon with ease, lunging forward and grasping my wrist with unrestrained concern adorning his face.

Taking a steadying breath and attempting to slow my rapidly beating heart beat, I relaxed my fingers and dropped the kunai that I had pulled from my hip pouch after throwing the first one. Seeing me back to my senses, Tousan loosened his grip on my wrist only to pull my arm, causing me to lunge forward into his chest as his arms wrapped around me. I sighed slightly and felt myself slowly relaxing. I wasn’t in that dark, dank, stone prison anymore. The suffocating killing intent was gone. I was back to reality, Tousan was right here.

Without letting go, Tousan asked, “What happened?”

Letting out one more sigh, I withdrew myself from his arms and gestured to the grass. Understanding, he immediately went to sit crosslegged and waited as I went to join him. He sat silently as I retold everything that had happened, what Kurama said word for word. It wasn’t until I had finished retelling that he gave me a look. Pouting slightly, I gave him an innocent look.

“What?”

Frowning, I could tell he was preparing for one of his fatherly lectures again. “Are you asking to make your life harder? What were you thinking? Antagonising the Kyuubi?!”

Okay, so he was angry. He spent the next thirty minutes reprimanding me and explain the importance of control Kurama, not piss him off. Only after he was sure I understood did he finally start discussing the next steps. We decided a safe bet would be letting everything lie low for a few days, and then trying again to talk to the Kyuubi, this time being assertive and strong, not angry and stupid. After that, we’d try to see if I could access his chakra.

Turns out, Kurama wasn’t in the chatty mood. A week past when I tried again, but I had no luck. That little string of chakra was much more prominent after making contact, but it was as if there was a wall up once I’d gotten to the end. Kurama was blocking me out. Realizing this only further pissed me off, knowing that he had the power now. Ripping myself from the depths of my subconscious, I angrily snapped to Tousan what was happening. Apparently thinking, Tousan went silent. I stood, fuming, as Tousan suddenly looked stricken. Confused, I cocked my head.

“Tousan? What’s wrong?”

Shaking his head, I kept looking as he suddenly looked sick. I had no fucking clue what he was thinking. I opened my mouth to try asking again when surprisingly, he spoke up first. “Wait here.”

Now completely perplexed, I could only watch as he disappeared in a flurry of yellow. What the fuck? Still a bit put off by my inability to get to Kurama and now my confusion of Tousan, I resigned to get in some training. Warming up with some stretches, I pulled out some senbon and found a tree to use as target practice. Assuming my position that yes, really had become second nature, I began flinging weapons towards the innocent tree. Almost an hour passed like that as I practiced my aim, taijutsu, some lightening ninjutsu, and even eventually just started doing pushups. I was beginning to think Tousan had forgotten about me when I felt a familiar presence appear behind me.

I moved to get up, only to feel the hairs on my neck suddenly stand on end as I rolled to the left, kicking out a leg to swip at the figures feet. Meeting only dirt, I twisted around and got into a crouch as I felt the familiar build of chakra race through the air. My eyes widened at the sight of Jiraiya racing through hand signs in front of me.

“Pervy Sage?”

I had only enough time to ask when suddenly, a rasengan was flying right at my head. Shocked, I gathered my wits with just enough time to fly through an earth jutsu, successfully sinking into the ground beneath me and dodging the ball of wind chakra. Still in a state of confusion, I had no time to react when a hand grabbed by arm and yanked me to the surface, delivering a chakra infused punch to my abdomen that sent me flying.

Why the fuck was Jiraiya trying to kill me? All those thoughts rose to my mind as my back collided with the tree I’d been using as a target, a loud cracking noise let me know I’d broken right through the trunk as I rolled to a stop on the forrest floor. I could already feel the ugly bruise forming on my back as my brain suddenly shut off all thoughts, my ninja training suddenly taking hold of my very being. I jumped to my feet, my adrenaline taking care of the pain that stole my vision for all of a millisecond, the only thing in the moment being survival.

My fingers acting on their own accord, I finished my hand signs and ran forward, flickering away and appearing right at the Sanin’s back as my body was engulfed in blue electricity bouncing through every limb, looking for an escape as I reached out and made to land a punch on my attacker, only to meet only air. But if I had learned anything from my little ANBU Uchiha, it was to never put everything into a single move, always being ready to change your course of action, even mid swing. Leaning backwards slightly, I shifted as I extended my arm to the side, sending the jutsu straight through my hand, using my arm as a conductor as I aimed right for the Sanin who was still in mid air from dodging. Luckily, I don’t need contact for the Lightening Release: Depth Charge.

My bolt of concentrated lightening shot through the air as the Sanin twisted in air, the lightening only grazing his back shoulder. I heard a slight hiss as the Sanin felt the lightening burn through his clothes, right down to his skin. The slight smell of burnt flesh reached my nose as I was momentarily brought back to the situation. Why was Jiraiya suddenly trying to kill me? Where did Tousan go? Was Tousan okay?

My lapse in concentration was one I quickly came to regret. Using my split seconds distraction, Jiraiya raced through yet another jutsu and was in front of me before I could even blink. I had only just tensed to jump backwards when the sage suddenly opened his mouth, a slick oil shooting out and covering me from head to toe before I could do more then jump away. Trying to put some distance between us, I made to teleport away when I found I could hardly lift my arms. Shocked, I looked down and suddenly realized I remembered this jutsu. It was the Toad Oil Bullet Jiraiya used. It would restrict my movements, and I couldn’t just wash it off with a water jutsu. Not only that, but it’s so flammable that if I were hit with a fire jutsu-

A soft yet wiry coil brought me from my thoughts as it wrapped around my legs, traveling up and holding my arms to my sides. I looked up to see Jiraiya’s white hair much longer than it used to, wrapped around me and holding me still. I was suddenly plagued with sheer panic.

“What the fuck Jiraiya?!”

I cried out as I struggled against the binds, mind racing as I tried to think of any escape. I could only watch, eyes wide as Jiraiya just stared back, suddenly racing through hand seals that I recognized. Breath catching, I realized this is where I would die. I had no time to dwell on this as Jiraiya completed his last hand sign and released the Great Fireball Jutsu straight at me. I felt the heat tingle against my skin as the enormous fire flew right at me. I had only just begun to realize what was truly happening when my mind suddenly felt like it was submerged in freezing cold water, my consciousness fading away as I sunk into a dreamlike state that I recognized. I stood in that terrible dark room as I looked right at Kurama as he gave me a superior look.

“You’re about to die.”

“No shit.”

Smiling, Kurama leaned forward against his chains. “Then let me help.”

I immediately furrowed my brow and frowned. “What?” Help? How? Kurama is s- oh fuck.

Kurama’s smirk got wider as realization dawned on my face, his eyes alighting with an excitement at the prospect of acceptance. “I can save you, all you have to do is let go.”

I knew exactly what he was doing. I remembered, all those years ago as I watched the anime Naruto, I remember what would happen if I relented. Kurama would have his taste of freedom. He’d take over my body and do as he pleased. I’d be no more than a feral demon. Not only that, but he’d get a lot more access to me, want to make his appearance more and more and wear the seal down faster. It would be the start of my downfall if I wasn’t strong enough.

But what choice did I have?

Settled, I walked forward, posture straight and face set in an emotionless mask as I approached the looming figure. I ignored Kurama’s confident sneer as I reached my hand out, stopping right in front of the leering fox’s snout. “You won’t control me. I’m going to get strong and make you submit, mark my words.” I bravely made my declaration before bringing my hand down on his moist nose, almost cold to the touch instead of the hot killing intent he filled the room with. And then, I felt chains shoot up from the floor, encircling my wrists and ankles, pulling me down to my knees. Letting out a shocked shout, I looked up as Kurama let out a bellowing laugh before my surroundings faded.

I clenched my eyes shut as I began to feel a sense of vertigo, my stomach threatening to bring my breakfast back up before it suddenly stopped. I opened my eyes to see I was in a small square room, no bigger than four feet across and four feet tall. It was suffocating. My head whipped around as I felt that old friend, panic, rising to the surface. I had been very claustrophobic in my past life, and I suppose it carried over into this one. I tried to grip my hair, only to find my wrists and ankles were still shackled to the ground, restricting my movements to just my head. My anxiety built as the cold hand of helplessness and dread caressed my heart, sending it pounding as I began to lose my sanity. I can’t claim to remember much of what happened next, but all I do remember is screaming my throat raw, tears stinging my eyes, pulling against my shackles in an attempt to free myself and only resulting in rubbing my wrists and ankles raw. I didn’t even noticed the blood.

I stayed in that state for what felt like hours, days even. I had no idea how much time had passed, but all of a sudden, I felt my consciousness snap back so suddenly, I couldn’t even stop the tortured scream that escaped my lips, carrying over from being locked inside that tiny block inside my own mind. On some level, I was aware that I was back, that Kurama had been locked away once more and that I was no longer bound, but for some panic induced reason, that didn’t quite register. I felt myself thrashing against a hold that tightened around me, too reminiscent of being held down by chains, as I screamed.

The voices around me sounded panicked, scared, but I couldn’t care if I tried. I tried to make sense of what the hell was happening, but I just couldn’t grasp ahold of reality. Somewhere in my strained mind I heard Tousan’s voice asking, “…said this was safe!?” I had no fucking clue what he was talking about, but I hope it wasn’t this. This didn’t really feel safe. I heard Jiraiya’s panicked reply, but I just couldn’t make out the words. Was that even English? Or I guess Japanese rather. Tousan’s yell was the last thing I heard before the darkness wrapped around me once again as my panic spiked a new high, fading away from my consciousness for the second time that day.

“Jiraiya, don’t!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Drop me a comment and let me know what you think. I think I only have like one or two more chapters of this left from 2016...


	6. A Long Way to Go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Akane gets a reality check on just how far she's come, but also how far she still has to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER I WROTE BACK WHEN I WAS 16! This is were I stopped writing all those years ago and forgot about this story. Actually, I had to write up the last few scenes just to finish up this chapter, so sorry if the style seems different. Let me know what you think of past me's unfinished story!!

 

The first thing I noticed was the feeling of someone’s hands under my thighs, someone’s back pressed against my chest, my head resting against a messy mop of hair. Somewhere in the fog of my brain, I knew that it was someone I recognized, but my mind was still in the throngs of my earlier panic, so it pushed aside the feeling of familiarity as I was suddenly fully alert. I tightened my arms around the neck of the person who was carrying me, jumping down from their back as I dragged them to the ground. My hand grabbed a kunai from my pouch as I was suddenly straddling the person, knees holding their arms down as my blade pressed against the fragile skin covering their jugular.

My breathing came out ragged, my limbs screaming at me to stop moving, but my adrenaline that still rushed through my veins put my weary limbs to use anyways. I glared down at my kidnapper and in my haze, I knew I recognized the face that looked back at me in startled concern, but it still just wouldn’t make sense in my brain. Then suddenly, I was lifted off of the figure I had pinned down and the kunai was forced out of my hand. I growled and thrashed my shoulders at being held by a large pair of hands, but my muscles were too tired, in too much pain to keep fighting.

But my mind was still on survival mode. I was a cornered animal and I would bite off my own limbs to get away.

I felt raw chakra build up in me, not accurately being channeled without the use of hand signs, something that was more than dangerous when you couldn’t properly direct your chakra through the right channels. Apparently my captors knew just that as I heard my name being called out.

“Akane, stop!”

How the fuck do they know my name? My mind tried to tell me that I knew that voice, that I didn’t want to hurt the owner of that voice, but my body was still acting purely on survival instinct. I whipped my elbow out and made contact with the presumed shinobi’s solar plexus, causing them to loosen their grip enough for me to throw my weight forward and out of their grasp. Wasting no time, I twisted my lower body, bringing my leg out in a roundhouse kick aimed for the captor that had restrained me.

I was stopped by a hand grabbing my leg, a foot sweeping out and kicking my knee that was holding me up, my body suddenly collapsing on the ground. The other shinobi was suddenly on me, hands on either side of my face as I squirmed to get free.

“Akane, it’s me, Tousan!”

At the name, I stopped my struggle and blinked up at those eyes that I felt like I'd recognized. I took another few seconds to scrutinise the face that stared down at me before the haze began to fade. Clarity began to cascade as I saw those blue eyes full of worry, the eyes that mirrored my own. I stayed frozen where I was as I felt the tension begin leaving my taught muscles. “Tousan..?”

The relief that flooded his features was probably the most alarming. I couldn’t find the strength to move as I was gathered up in his arms, the same ones I had felt earlier when I had first woken up. That had been Tousan carrying me?

“I’m so sorry Akane, I had no idea that would happen. It went way too far, I’m sorry, I didn’t even think-“

Now immensely concerned on top of my confusion, I used as much strength as I had to raise my hand and rest it on Tousans arm.

“It’s fine Tousan, I’m right here.” I tried to be comforting, but my voice broke with what sounded like a sob. I snapped my mouth shut as Tousan pulled back to look at my face. It was only then I noticed I had been crying the whole time. “Um, could you please explain what the fuck is going on?”

I watched as Tousan turned his pained eyes to a place right behind my shoulder. Tensing, I turned my neck, I saw my second captor, Jiraiya, and felt my shoulders relax as he stood a few feet away, watching the scene in front of him. Suddenly, memories of Jiraiya trying to kill me rose to my mind as my whole body tensed yet again, preparing for a fight I knew I couldn’t even hope to win. Luckily, Tousan put a reassuring hand on my shoulder as he spoke delicately. “He’s not going to attack, I promise. We should probably explain”

I gave Jiraiya a suspicious look as he turned his face away, appearing guilty almost. Unwilling to turn my attention away from a potential enemy, I refused to give into my crying muscles and stayed at attention. Eventually, Jiraiya came and sat down a few feet away, right in my direct field of vision. I tried to sit up on my own, only to sway forward. Tousan resigned to let me lean heavily on his shoulder after my protests of heading right to the hospital, instead demanding they explain everything to me first.

“Well… after you couldn’t get to Kurama, I thought that there must be a way to lure him out. It’s important to show absolute control over him, to show him that things won’t go his way, that he has to listen to you. So I didn’t want to just let him think he could get away with deciding when to make contact. I had no idea how to do that, but I did have a theory…” Tousan trailed off, looking down at the grass before sullenly continuing. “I thought we might be able to lure him out if you thought you were in a situation of life or death.”

Blinking, I leaned back and looked up at Tousan’s distraught face. Well honestly, he wasn’t wrong. While I was steadily forgetting information from the original story, I did remember that Jiraiya had done something similar with Naruto, throwing him off a cliff or something in order to have him draw on the Kyuubi’s chakra. Really, I couldn’t blame him for thinking and acting on that.

I just looked up at him as he seemed to gather up his emotions. “So I hid on the edge of the training ground and tried to put you under a genjutsu. I tried to make it seem like you were being attacked, but… it didn’t work. I don’t know why, but none of my genjutsu’s would work on you. Not knowing what else to do, I tracked down Jiraiya.” Here, Tousan glanced up at his old sensei, but the man was pointedly not looking back. “He said if genjutsu wouldn’t work, there was only one other thing to try.”

And suddenly, it all made sense. I didn’t need Tousan’s explanation as to what happened next, but he went on anyways, oblivious to the feeling bubbling in my chest. “Jiraiya said he’d put you in that situation, of life and death. I refuted at first, but he said he could do it as safely as possible. He could force Kurama to accept you without actually killing you. So I let him. I teleported back to the edge of the training ground while he attacked you.”

“I didn’t expect you to fight back so hard.”

I looked over as Jiraiya spoke up for the first time this entire encounter. I stared him down blankly as he worked up the courage to look back. “I was just going to restrain you and throw a kunai or two your way, something simple, but you made that a bit difficult.” He murmured the last part of his sentence as he brought a hand towards his back, only then did I remember the wound I had inflicted on him. I felt a smirk lingering right under my emotionless mask, but it was easily pushed away by my weariness.

“Eventually, once I’d finally got you held down, I had other choice but to send a fireball your way and just hope you’d be able to stop it, otherwise you’d just break out of my jutsu and I’d have to try and restrain you all over again. It-“ Jiraiya paused and was back to looking at the ground. “It was a mistake on my part. I shouldn’t have subjected you to something like that.”

There was a tense silence that stretched over where we sat on the path from the training ground to the cities edge. I almost spoke up when Tousan decided to first. “As soon as I saw the fireball, I rushed right down and was getting ready to send a water jutsu, but apparently it wasn’t needed.”

“Neither of us had any idea that would happen. We just thought we’d open up a communication between you and the nine-tails, but not… that.” Jiraiya paused yet again while I waited for either of them to continue. When it appeared as if neither wanted to be the one to speak, I cleared my sore throat slightly.

“And what exactly is ‘that’?” I asked, even though I had a good idea what it was.

They exchanged a glance, an apparent unspoken conversation before Tousan sighed. “It seemed that, when your life was at risk, Kurama decided to take control.”

Memories of my conversation surfaced in my mind as my throat dried, my stomach lurching. I heard my voice before I realized I was talking. “I remember. I thought Jiraiya meant to kill me, I remember Kurama came to me. He pulled me into that room and told me he’d save me. I-I let him out. I walked up to him and put my hand on him and then… and then I was-.” I broke off as my hands started to shake. I really didn’t want to talk about that. Apparently sensing my inner panic, Tousan laid a careful hand on my back.

“It makes sense. Neither of us thought of a situation where you’d give into Kurama to fight for you, but that should have been the obvious. Either way, we saw the moment that Kurama had taken hold. Your eyes turned orange, your chakra was so thick that it was tangible around you. You dissipated the fireball like it was nothing, ripping Jiraiya hair bonds like it was paper. We couldn’t even stop you when you attacked.”

Alarmed, I looked up and immediately took to scouring for any injuries on the two shinobi in front of me. Tousan look relatively unscathed, but it looked like Jiraiya was supporting a few nasty wounds now that I looked with a clear head. There was a bit of a gash that looked like claw marks across his abdomen, a bleeding wound somewhere on his forehead, blood falling over his eyes. It also looking like his entire outfit was singed with what was probably the result of a fire or lightening jutsu. He looked pretty rough.

“The fight wasn’t long.” I looked up into the Sannin’s eyes as he spoke. “ANBU showed up in only a minute after the fight started and ended up using some earth jutsu to restrain you enough for your dad to talk you back to reality.” I gave Tousan a look as my mind tried to connect the missing dots. That jutsu was definitely Tenzou’s, the same one he used on Naruto. But what did Tousan do to bring me back?

“The second I saw Kurama being reigned back under control, I dismissed the ANBU and ran up to you, but it seemed as if you were still wherever you’d been while Kurama had been in control. You were just… screaming on the ground, rolling around like you were in pain.” I looked up, mortified, at Tousan’s crestfallen face as he explained. Fuck.

“I knocked you out.” I snapped my gaze to Jiraiya, shocked.

“You what?”

Instead of the amused smirk that would usually accompany an accusation like that, Jiraiya only frowned further. “I couldn’t just leave you screaming there, so I knocked you out. Minato already gave me an earful, don’t worry. Anyways, he picked you up, and we were on our way sprinting to the hospital when you just woke up now. Apparently you weren’t all with it still, cause you brought your dad to the floor and pinned him. I honestly thought you were going to kill him there for a second, so I tried to intervene, only to have you elbow my injury.” He brought a hand up to the marks on his abdomen as he spoke, almost as if still feeling the pain.

“Honestly, we had no idea anything like that would happen. We thought we were helping but…” Tousan trailed off, not needing to finish his sentence to get his point across. I took one deep steadying breath before opening my mouth.

“You’re both fucking idiots!” Two sets of eyes snapped up to mine in shock as I only continued. “If you’d just thought to stop and ask me, I could have told you that would happen.” I spared a meaningful glance at Tousan that he immediately understood, suddenly looking grim. I shook my head as if I were a disapproving parent. “I swear, what the hell am I supposed to do with you two?”

As much as I joked, I could feel my adrenaline slowly draining, leaving me in an overwhelming pain that settled deep in my bones. My weariness suddenly became unbearable as I felt myself collapse further onto Tousan, drawing my name questioningly from his lips. I could only mumble an quick, “Too tired…” before I began to drift away yet again. I knew it would throw the men into a bit of a panic, but I just couldn’t stay conscious any longer. Not only did I have that physical drain of my fight and the brief run in with Kurama’s overwhelming chakra in my body, but also the emotional drain of being trapped in my own mind, of the thought of Jiraiya actually trying to kill me, of having no one to turn to except Kurama.

I would suffer with those emotional wounds for awhile most likely, but I could at least rest now and try to rid myself of the physical ones. I knew I’d recover fast. After all, I’d let the Kyuubi’s chakra loose now, so I had an inkling I’d be laying in hospital beds a lot less now.

* * *

 

After that whole ordeal, Tousan took to being much more careful with any advancement with Kurama. He wanted to start over from the beginning, building a better foundation in order to control him better in the long run. That didn’t sit well with me.

I wanted to charge forward full force. Grab Kurama by the balls so to speak. Yes, I was still traumatised by my time trapped in that small room in my head, but that was all the more reason to want to move forward. I wanted control over the Kyuubi so that couldn’t happen again. I wanted to work with Kurama, not against him. But I wasn’t stupid enough to just go off on my own with supervision, no.

So the next time I saw him, I grabbed Itachi by the arm and dragged him all the way out to that farthest training ground with me. I would have taken Kakashi, but he was away on a month long mission and I’m impatient. Besides, Itachi possessed the Sharingan too, so I suppose he will work just the same. After explaining he was there to control the tailed beast if it got out of hand, he immediately declined. It was too dangerous to Konoha.

But I knew exactly how to play my dear Uchiha friend by now.

After a promise of as much dango as he wanted, along with an explanation of how the Hokage himself had been doing the same thing with me for months, years even, he relented. Well, it had less to do with the promise of dango, but I figured it was an added bonus.

So after sitting there for hours, I finally broke through that wall. Kurama wasn’t in the talking mood apparently, so I talked for both of us. I told him how this was going to work. I told him that I was in control, but I wanted to work with him as an equal. I told him I was going to start using my own chakra to restrain him, but I didn’t want to keep him quite literally chained to the floor in this suffocating room all alone. I told him that I held hatred for him for many reasons, but I wanted to let it all go and start again from the start.

He didn’t respond.

Figuring I’d done what I needed, I bid him farewell and came back to the surface, seeing Itachi watching me with a curious expression. Cocking my head, I drew my brows together. “What?”

Shaking his head, Itachi just held out a hand to help me up and turned to leave. Confused, I followed him as we slipped into pointless small talk, not bringing up the hours long session of trying to reach Kurama for reasons unknown to me. After we parted ways that evening, the next time I saw him was two weeks later when I snagged him yet again. This time, he gave no complaints and just followed me out to the training ground.

This time, Kurama was in much more of a talkative mood. Or well, perhaps talkative was a bit of a stretch. It was more like he was enjoying making fun of me and insulting everything I said.

“I’m trying to be nice.”

“I’m not.”

“Why can’t we just work together?”

“I don’t collaborate with pathetic weakling kit’s.”

“Are you always this unbearable?”

“Yes.”

And it went on like this for weeks. Eventually, I had to give in and try another approach. I’d have to show Kurama I was serious. So that next time I reached out to talk, I was prepared for his jab.

“Oh look, my saviour returns.” Kurama sneered at me, but the fear it had once ignited in me was now absent. It felt reminiscent as to how I once viewed Itachi. I had once been terrified of those red and black eyes that belonged to a murderer, but eventually, I realized that there was so much beyond his jagged exterior. He wasn’t the evil person I had once thought, not at all. He had just put on that front and I had fallen for it. Now, I trusted Itachi to watch over me with those eyes that could quite literally rip Kurama right out of me and destroy Konoha and kill everybody, and I would be powerless to stop it.

But I trusted Itachi.

I was determined to get to the point where I could trust Kurama.

Steeling myself, I gathered up my chakra as Kurama looked at me curiously. Without waiting for any questioning, I released the jutsu as a set of chains burst from the wall behind Kurama, stretching out to loop around his neck and abdomen, pulling taught, but no more. Then the already present chains on his neck and waist were suddenly loosened slightly, giving him room to pick up his head. With one last push of chakra, the chains that stretched his limbs out to the sides were also let up slightly, allowing the enormous demon to stand before they pulled tight yet again, securing his legs to that spot.

Kurama looked down at me as if I’d grown a second head.

Wiping the sweat off my temple, I gave a satisfied smile towards the new arrangement and nodded, pleased with my work. They may not be as good as Kaasan’s chains, but her’s were still all intact and were going to stay that way until mine got stronger. My plan with the added two chains was to eventually have it so he was only chained against the wall, giving him a bit of length to the chains so he could at least roam around a bit. While it wasn’t much, it would be better then being confined to the floor for years.

Actually, my change of just having him stand seemed to already make a bit of a difference. Kurama glared warily down at me as he tested the strength of the chains, still held firmly in place. I could already sense his question, so I forwent having him even ask. “I can’t imagine it’s very comfortable being chained down like that for 10 years. While this isn’t much better, I was hoping it would at least be an improvement. I got to feel what it was like being so confined, and I was only there for a few minutes. I can only imagine what it’s like for you…”

And I meant every word. I wanted to put aside my hatred for the nine-tails who killed Kaasan, who trapped me in that small room, who put me through such an excruciating experience. I wanted to forgive him and work with Kurama. So step one was getting him to not completely hate me.

Looking down at me with a heated glare, Kurama growled slightly. “This changes nothing, kit.”

Smiling sweetly, I gave him a quick wave as I started pulling myself back to reality. “Of course not.”

Things did change after that. As time passed, I began talking to Kurama by myself with no one around to supervise, letting that fact go unannounced to Tousan and Itachi both.They most certainly wouldn’t approve. So instead, I’d sit on my bed when Tousan was still at work and talk with Kurama, an occurrence that happened now about once a week. Eventually, the hours long process became nothing more than simply focusing on that link before I was standing right in front of the demon. Not only did that change, but so did our relationship.

Eventually, and ever so slowly, Kurama let me in. He began to talk with me instead of at me, to throw playful jibes at me instead of insulting me, to allow me to use his chakra instead of him trying to control mine. It wasn’t easy, and he wasn’t the only one that had to change in the process. I had to give away a piece of my free will and let our path of communication work both ways, had to let go of my grudge and accept Kurama as who he was, had to grow stronger to prove myself to the demon. Overall, it was a process that took almost a full two years to get to where I was now.

I held Kurama’s tentative trust, and I gave mine in return.

Because of all my working with Kurama, my continued sparring and training with Itachi and Kakashi, my Chunin missions, as well as looking out for Tousan, time flew by without my noticing. I had grown into this life that I had come to view as mine. Long forgotten was my previous life with my uncaring adoptive parents, absent step siblings, angry boss, shitty car, and loving tabby cat. My life, the people I cared for, they were all here in my life in Konoha. I was no longer Sam, the 23 year old loner who struggled to get by. I was Akane Namikaze, kunoichi and daughter of the fourth Hokage.

So it hit me like whiplash the day Naruto bounded up to me, immediately clutching the edge of my shirt and drawing my attention down at him. When had he gotten so big? “Neh, Akane nee-san. Can you help me practice for my exam?” Shrugging, eyes turned back to where I sat writing my mission report, I simply drawled, “Sure. What’s the exam for?”

“Nee-san, have you not been paying any attention?! It’s the genin exams, to finally become a ninja!”

My gaze snapped up, but my shock was quickly school in a blank face and even tone as I asked, “So soon?” Years of being a ninja really wore on you, made you rough around the edges. Not only that, but whether you wanted to or not, you were a ninja in and out of missions, 24/7. You couldn’t just turn off all those skills and traits you’ve honed and perfected after years.

Nodding reverently, Naruto looked at me with those wide eyes, looking as if he’d start vibrating with excitement at any minute. “It’s only a week away! I was nervous at first, but if you help me train, there’s no way I can fail, dattebayo!”

There’s another thing that hadn’t changed from the original story. Naruto was absolutely terrible in the Academy. Tousan and I both tried so hard to help him, but it was just a loss cause. I knew that he’d end up passing as long as everything stayed on track, so I just gave up. Once he became Kakashi’s genin team, he’d learn everything he’d need to know. I had faith in Kakashi to teach him when no one else could, for it to work just as it had in the original story. Not only that, but if he wasn’t ‘dead last’, he wouldn’t be paired with Sasuke and Sakura, and I just couldn’t risk that happening.

On top of that, he also hadn’t accessed the Kyuubi’s chakra. While both Tousan and I had sat down with him and explained what a jinchuriki was and just how dangerous it could be, we explicitly decided to forgo having him make any contact with Kurama until the future. It was far too early, too risky for Naruto with how inexperienced and unknowledgeable he was. The only reason Tousan had me do it so early was because of all my knowledge from my past life, being able to know even more than Tousan himself. It was at least relatively safe for me.

Not for Naruto.

“Hm… I don’t know Otouto. It’s supposed to be a demonstration of your own skill to see if you’re ready to become a ninja, not seeing if you can learn all the jutsu’s last minute with my help.” Like I said, I couldn’t risk him doing on the exam, no matter how much it may hurt to see that betrayed look on Naruto’s face.

Face distraught, Naruto looked absolutely beaten all of a sudden. “But Nee-san…”

Resolve cracking, I sigh and set down my ink brush, turning away from my report to look at the downtrodden Naruto. “Naruto, I know it’s not what you want to hear, but this is truly something you need to do on your own. Yes, you need to learn all these things, but not a week before the exam. This is to test to see if you’re ready to be a ninja, to see if your abilities are enough to keep you alive when you’re on a real mission. This isn’t something you can just cheat on, Otouto. I’m sorry, but this is something too important to try to simply brush off.” I met Naruto’s eyes after my speech to see him cross his arms and pout. I sighed wearily and let my eyes drift closed momentarily. Of course he wouldn’t get it.

“No fair.”

“Neither is being a ninja.” Opening my eyes to see him still pouting down at the floor, I rolled my eyes. “How about this. If you pass, and only if you do, I’ll train with you once a week given I’m in Konoha and not on a mission. I know it’s not-“

“You will?! YES! Dattebayo! I’m gonna get training from a strong ninja like nee-san! Take that Sasuke!” And with that, Naruto lit up like a Christmas tree, pumping a fist in the air as he whooped, turning and running out of the room excitedly. “Naruto, wait!” Seeing him disappear, I sighed yet again and turned my gaze back to my unfinished report, the last few sentences jumbled and unclear. Frowning, I gave it a mere second hesitation before picking it up and making my way out the door. It may be one of the worst report’s I’d ever written, but like hell I was going to rewrite all that!

Walking through Konoha, back straight and face set in it’s now blank slate, I made my way through the throngs of afternoon crowds towards the mission desk. Reaching the door, I spared a quick prayer that Iruka wasn’t working. He always chewed me out big time when I handed in such poor reports. Stepping inside, I forced an innocent smile on my face. Iruka sat behind his desk, his line being the only one empty.

Great.

Walking forward slowly, hoping one of the other lines would clear by the time I reached the desk. I felt my heart drop a bit when Iruka looked up at me and smiled. Raising a hand in a lazy wave, I finally reached the desk. “Hey Iruka, you look nice!” Raising an eyebrow and glancing down at himself, Iruka looked back up and gave me a suspicious glance.

“I’m wearing my usual shinobi gear.”

“That you are.”

An awkward silence passed before I pulled the paper from my side and thrust it on wooden surface in front of the perplexed man. “Well, I’m in a rush. Here’s my report from my last mission. Let’s meet up and grab ramen some time, bye Iruka!” I turned heel and made my retreat before Iruka even touched the report. Just as I was closing the door behind me, I heard a deep, angered growl call after me. “Akane!”

Sighing, I leaned up against the wooden door for a second before I smirked. That worked out better than I thought. Straightening, I only made it two steps before I walked right into a lean chest. Cursing my inattention, I stepped back with an apology on my tongue before it was swallowed at who it was that stood in front of me. Blinking, I cocked my head slightly. “Oh, it’s just you.”

Staggering dramatically and clutching at his heart, Kakashi gasped loudly. “Just me? Wow, you know how to hit where it hurts Akane.”

I raised a skeptical brow. “Right.” Side stepping out of the way of a shinobi trying to enter the door I was standing in front of, I went right back to my conversation. “Back so soon?”

Visible eye crinkling in a happy arch, Kakashi nodded. “Well I had to. If I’m not here, you’d surely die from loneliness, and I can’t have sensei blaming me for that!”

“More like I’d die from pure happiness…” I muttered as I crossed my arms.

“Hmm? What was that Akane-chan?”

I sighed as I straightened back up. Obviously the perverted man had heard me, and I was not going to be playing his game today. “Up for a spar? I was forced to fight with Itachi and Tousan while you were gone and my constant loosing streak is really wearing on me.” I gave him a teasing smirk. “I could really use a win, so I figured you were my best bet.”

Kakashi looked back at me with a raised brow and shifted on his feet. “Oh really? And tell me Akane, how many times have you beat me in a fight? Oh, that’s right, zero.”

“Hey, that’s not true! Remember that time you taught me the shadow clone lightening release?”

“Accidentally electrocuting the water we were standing on and making us both pass out does not count as beating me.”

“Fine, it was a draw.”

“Uh huh.”

Rolling my eyes, I asked, “So, spar?”

I watched as his eyes flitted over to the door I had just come from before settling back on me. “Maaa, I suppose I could. I was told to turn in my mission report, but I suppose I can put it off for a little while to help you.”

“So you didn’t write one and need an excuse better than ‘I got lost on the road of life’?”

I took Kakashi’s silence as my answer and snorted before turning heel and making my way towards the training grounds. We really should book one of the grounds, but honestly, I’ve never seen a single other person at our usual training ground, so we eventually just started forgoing booking it. As soon as we got to the edge of the city, I glanced back at the lazy jounin and smirked in my head. Let’s see how serious he was.

Looking behind me, I gave Kakashi a sly smile before I flashed through a set of hand seals in a matter of milliseconds before my body was enveloped in a hair raising electric field. I got to watch Kakashi’s eye widen slightly before I felt myself dissipate in a rush of electricity, appearing in the same fashion but now looking out over the trees that surrounded the familiar training grounds.

It had been months since me and Kakashi had sparred or even trained together. He’s been dealt mission after mission with little time in between, and my schedule hadn’t been much different. I was going on a mission every week, working with Kurama in any spare time, so I hadn’t had more than a few days to myself in almost 6 months, those days going to sparring with Itachi or Tousan or Kenji. So needless to say, it has been a little while since I had seen or fought against Kakashi, and I was eager to see how we both improved.

Despite my earlier words, I had no chance against the Copy-nin, plain and simple. I had far to go before getting on his infamous level, but I had every intention of getting there. My need to get stronger, to become a better ninja, had morphed from stemming from my failure to protect Kaasan to so much more. I wanted to be strong enough to protect my loved ones, yes, but I also wanted to make Tousan and Naruto proud. I wanted to lay life and limb for this village that’s become my home. I wanted to reach past my peers and pull myself up to that ledge where all my closest friends sat as legendary ninja’s. Not only all of that, but I wanted it for myself. Every time I broke through another glass ceiling, accomplished another goal I set for myself, I found myself soaring. I had so much I was striving for, but I had so little time.

So I worked everyday to accomplish what I wanted. And I was getting there, albeit slower than I wished.

As I stayed hidden in the shadows of the trees and shrubbery, masking my chakra signature to almost nonexistent, I watched the empty training ground as I waited for the silver-haired shinobi to appear. My eyes saw no trace of him, but my other senses told me of his entrance. The hair’s on the back of my neck stood on end, the birds chirping cutting off suddenly, a flare of chakra igniting the other side of the clearing before completely disappearing.

Kakashi had just teleported. Immediately, my instincts kicked in as I crouched lower, hand flying through seals before slapping my palms on the rocky ground. The rumbling and dirt cloud told me of the jutsu’s success as I saw a flash of white on my right, jerking my body to dodge the barrage of kunai aimed at me. I jumped and landed on the trunk of a nearby tree, using my chakra to keep me from conforming to gravity. My eyes searched for Kakashi, but found nothing. Not wanting to waste time, I sent my chakra out like a ripple around my immediate surroundings before I felt a ping of concentrated chakra. Leaping once more, I just managed to avoid the lightening that put a hole in the tree I’d been on, catching fire to the bark.

So he was serious, was he?

Unable to contain my wild smile, I flipped to the ground and ran out into the open area. Turning, I saw Kakashi appear in front of me in a swirl of leaves. “That was dirty Kakashi. It almost feels like you want to hurt me.” My wide smile betrayed the faux hurt in my voice.

Masked lips jerking in what looked to be a smirk, Kakashi shrugged. “Wouldn’t know how you got to that conclusion.”

With that, my hand flashed through seals as I gathered my chakra and rushed forward. I saw the jounin tense, ready to block my lightening jutsu when I switched suddenly and picked up speed at the last second, darting off to the side and around Kakashi who was still prepared to block the jutsu that wasn’t coming. Appearing suddenly behind the man, I let the facade drop and threw a chakra laden fist right at his back. He managed to side step it, but my pinky just managed to make contact with his ribs, sending Kakashi flying back and to the ground. A common misdirection. Instead of gathering my chakra for the jutsu he thought I was preparing for with my hand seals, I was pumping chakra into my fists for a taijutsu attack.

It worked better than I’d thought.

Kakashi got to his feet in a crouch as he was still sliding across the grass, leaping up onto a nearby branch. “You really have improved.” I smirked under his praise. It was the reaction I longed for. I loved that shocked surprise when you exceeded someones expectations. When they underestimated you only to pay for it. It was intoxicating.

My pride was cut short by Kakashi’s hand rising to his hitai-ate, pulling up his headband to reveal a closed eye bisected with a worn scar. I had only a second to realize his intentions before that eye cracked open, revealing the spinning tomoe’s that made up the Sharingan. I sucked in a breath as he spoke next. “I suppose it’s time to get serious.”

Fuck.

The fight drudged on despite my earlier thoughts of it ending after the Sharingan made its appearance. While I fought tooth and nail, it paid off. After almost an hour, we both stood on the water in the training ground, panting and injured. I had a blooming bruise stretching all the way down my ribs to my abdomen from a rib breaking kick, multiple slashes from kunai, and even a burn on my arm from a grazed lightening jutsu, along with a wide variety of other small bumps and bruises and cuts from various sources. Kakashi, while panting and chakra low, stood much less affected by the fight. He supported singed clothes from a fire jutsu, several small lacerations from my wind jutsu, and was supporting a slight limp from the dark bruise on his hip from a chakra powered punch from earlier, but nothing he couldn’t brush off. We should have called it quits thirty minutes ago, but there was more then just a spar on the line.

Our pride wouldn’t let us stop.

I could feel my chakra nearing empty, and I knew Kakashi wasn’t as far behind as he let on. He’d already pulled out his trump card, his Sharingan that drained so much of his chakra, but I still had mine. I frowned at that thought. I hadn’t ever tried it without facing a real opponent I needed to kill. Should I risk it? I mean, I had to learn how to control and use that power, so what better time than in the safety of Konoha sparring against the legendary Copy-nin?

Taking a deep breath, I looked Kakashi in the eye and smiled lightly. “You really have improved.” I echoed Kakashi’s words from earlier, ignoring the anxiety that suddenly flooded my veins. Every time I did it, I was consumed with that killing intent as if it were my own. While I wasn’t taken over like that first time, it was still as if I was just a puppet with a rage filled puppeteer. I was consumed with the need to kill and destroy, succumbed to the feeling of pure killing intent. I had to learn to use that power while maintaining control.

“I suppose it’s time to get serious.”

My words never reached my ears as I watched Kakashi’s face scrunch in confusion before I delved within myself. Within a second, I was standing in front of Kurama. He sat tall, chained to the back wall by his neck, limbs, and all nine tails. Now at least, he had the ability to roam slightly, the entire length to the back wall. It wasn’t much better, but definitely an improvement.

“Kit.”

“Kurama.”

“You wish to use my chakra.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes. Are you up for it?” I didn’t need to ask. Technically, I was able to take hold of that chakra whenever I wanted despite my lack of control handling such raw power, but part of this two way relationship I’d been building was respect. I respected Kurama enough to at least let him know I planned on using his chakra. In return, he’d always say-

“If I must.”

What used to be resigned reluctance somehow morphed into a ritualistic acceptance. Bowing slightly, I gave him a smile. “You’re too kind.” I heard the demon’s scoff as I pulled myself out of my mind, a familiar chakra overloading my senses. I could feel my mind start to settle on the back burner, something I usually wouldn’t fight too much but now fought back against with all my might. I could feel the Kyuubi’s chakra oozing out of my every pore, my teeth and nails sharpen to mimic that of whose chakra I borrowed. My killing intent spiked to an all high as I struggled to reign in my control. I felt my body tense as it tried to lunge forward. No. I wouldn’t give in.

Clenching my teeth with exertion, I shook my head and gave my cheeks a none too gentle smack. Surprisingly, I felt a sense of clarity dancing at the edge of my mind. Frowning, I made a quick decision. If I had to stay coherent with pain, so be it. I dug my talons into my palm as I finally found myself able to control my eyes. I looked over the utterly shell shocked jounin standing in front of me. I bared my teeth in what was supposed to be a smirk. Now was my time.

Digging harder into my hand, I lunged forward faster than the Copy-nin himself and spared a quick pause as my nose almost touched his, smirking at his bemusement. “Boo.” And with that, I thrust an open palm forward, reminiscent of the Hyuuga’s style of fighting as it made contact with Kakashi’s solar plexus, drawing all air from his lungs as he flew backwards with force, the first tree snapping in half as he flew through it. Colliding with the second, it suffered a dent but held, the jounin collapsing at the base. Before he could regain his senses, I was suddenly upon him, kunai pressed at his throat.

Inside, I was pulling the emergency brake. That hit had been much harder than I had anticipated. I wasn’t actually trying to seriously injure Kakashi, I never wanted to do that. This was a spar, not a fight to the death. But as I tried to pull back on Kurama’s chakra, fear griping my insides, I found myself settled on that familiar back burner.

I smiled a wicked sneer at him as he looked up at me with a hint of fear. Any other time, I’d be unsettled by such a blatant show of weakness, wanting nothing more then to bring him back to the lazy and joking Kakashi he was, but not now. With Kurama’s chakra overpowering my own, I found myself pressing that kunai down with little force, drawing a line of blood over the exposed skin of his neck as I leaned down. Wide eyed and crazed sneer, I growled wickedly. “Looks like I win, mutt.”

My control started to fade, but I couldn’t get my fingers to dig into my skin anymore. I felt my own self fading into the background as the puppeteer took centerstage. Pain settled into my bones as I saw through someone else’s eyes as Kakashi’s mouth moved, words reaching ears other than mine. I was being overwhelmed, Kurama’s chakra too powerful to hold for any longer. My body began to lean forward, kunai pressing more fully into Kakashi’s neck as I did everything I could to stop, but it wasn’t me anymore. I was a spectator for this monster that wore my body like a fucking meat suit.

And suddenly, my body was laying on the ground, the monster restrained and thrashing against bonds that surrounded it’s wrists. I saw through its eyes black lines on the grass, the marking of a seal perhaps. Looking closer, I saw the telltale signs of the Uzumaki style of fuinjutsu.

Tousan.

My sudden dread paused the monster in its thrashing as if just now sensing me. Despite my distraction, I realized my chance and seized it. Putting my morphed teeth to use, I sunk my fangs into my tongue until my mouth flooded with blood. I heard the monster gurgle as it choked on the blood, but I fought past it. Using the pain as my grasp on reality, I pushed that monster back into its cage with everything I had left in me. Metaphorically slamming the door on the cell, I trapped Kurama’s chakra back into that dark room, chained to that wall. Suddenly thrown back into my own body, I sucked in a deep breath, only to immediately choke on the thick, warm blood that poured in my mouth. Coughing, I turned my head to the side and let the blood be spurt into the grass, trickling out of the side of my mouth.

I hope I didn’t bite my tongue off.

Opening my eyes I hadn’t realized were shut, I felt nausea bubble up in my throat at the sight. Tousan was helping a stumbling Kakashi stand, throwing his arm over his shoulder to support his weight. But that wasn’t what caused my rising panic. A line of red split the soft skin on the jounin’s throat, beads of deep red blood rolling out of the gash. It wasn’t deep enough to puncture his windpipe luckily, but it didn’t look like it had been that far away. I swallowed the lump in my throat, only to cough up blood yet again.

I fucked up big time. I shoved my panic attack away, something I was able to do on most occasions thanks to my shinobi training, and I watched as Tousan and Kakashi exchanged quiet words before both looking over at me at the same time. I tried to hold either of their gazes, but I couldn’t. I laid there over the seal on my back, arms spread out to either side, head tipped to my right so I didn't drown in my own blood.

I really fucked up.

"Shit." The curse escaped my lips in a sharp whisper. I heard footsteps approaching from behind me, but I found myself unable to muster the courage to face either Kakashi or Tousan. I had almost killed Kakashi, and all for some stupid spar. Sure, it was to attempt to control Kurama more, but I couldn't have let Kakashi know that? Maybe tried it with him when he wasn't already depleted of chakra and injured? And Tousan explicitly told me not to use Kurama's chakra without him, or someone who could seal him back up, around.

And because I'd ignored all the precautions and common sense, I'd almost killed Kakashi. Wow, I'm a real grade A asshole, aren't I?

"Can you stand?" I didn't have to look at Tousan to know how much he was trying to reign in his anger.

"Yeah."

"Then stand up. I'll teleport us to the hospital."

He was pissed. Usually the first thing he'd ask is if I was alright, help me get myself up and look for any injuries. But I suppose I really did deserve worse than just the cold shoulder he was giving me.

Dutifully ignoring my screaming limbs, I forced my arms to push me up, pulling my legs under myself to slowly get myself standing. Swaying, I staggered slightly before shaking my head, finally looking over to where Tousan had Kakashi drapped over his shoulder. He... didn't look great.

I swallowed my guilt for the time being, wanting to get Kakashi to the hospital as soon as possible, despite the Copy-nin's protests. Carefully, I staggered over to Tousan where he reached out and put a hand on my shoulder. In only an instant, the world was incased in a frenzy of yellow electricity, every hair on my body standing straight up as suddenly, we were standing in the hospital.

And just as suddenly, Tousan had walked away from me, Kakashi in tow. I stood there and watched as Tousan led Kakashi into one of the rooms, directed by one of the kunoichi working who had spotted the Hokage and one of the most famous ninjas in Konoha injured. I watched Tousan's retreating back and felt a pain in my chest that wasn't from the spar. For some reason, that hurt a lot more than him yelling at me. But really, I really did deserve this one.

That was one of the stupidest things I'd done, and I had almost gotten one of my closest friends killed because of my lapse in the most common sense.

The guilt from earlier coming back full force, I leaned against the wall in the hospital corridor, letting the exhaustion take over as I slid down the wall until I sat on the floor. My knees pulled up to my chest, I let my head drop on my knees and let out a weary sigh. Not gonna lie, I felt pretty low in this moment.

I sat there for maybe ten minutes before I just felt too antsy, filled with too much guilt and depressed thoughts to just sit there with so many people passing and asking if I needed help. Mustering up the rest of my strength, I teleported myself away in a flash of blue lightening, messily appearing in front of a familiar stone. No longer needing to feign anything, I collapsed on the ground, my back resting against the cool slab of the Memorial Stone. I felt hot tears of regret burn at the corners of my eyes as I looked up at the setting sky.

"I really fucked up this time Kaasan."

I felt my eyes weigh down, pulling my lids close as I succumbed to the overwhelming urge to just lay there. I wasn't aleep, I wasn't uncomscious, I just laid there with my eyes closed, my mind carefully blank. My mind was feeling too many things, thinking too many thoughts. I just needed to lay there.

It seemed like I still had a long ways to go before I could say I mastered control over Kurama. And that meant I had a lot more growing and training to do before I was strong enough to protect the people who were going to need me in the not so distant future.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That's it guys. That's all I wrote. I actually started to get attached to this story myself, I found myself enjoying reading and editing this piece. I don't know, it feels really sad knowing that I never finished this. I kinda want to pick it up and write more, but I honestly have no idea what my plan was with this story, and I don't remember a lot about Naruto since I haven'e really been into it in years...
> 
> Let me know what you guys think. Is it worth it to keep writing? Thank you guys either way, this was so much fun to go back and read, and actually post something I created so long ago!


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